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<TITLE>SDF - The Author-friendly Markup Language</TITLE>
<META NAME="description" CONTENT="A free documentation tool for generating HTML, PostScript,Windows Help, PDF, LaTeX, man pages, SGML, RTF, MIF, POD, GNU infoand plain text, all from a single source. Minimises time and effortby supporting rule-based generation of hypertext, formatting,indexing, etc. The SDF language is easy to read, powerful andeasy to embed in most programming languages.">
<META NAME="keywords" CONTENT="word processing, desktop publishing,literate programming, embedded documentation, Perl, Delphi, C, C++,Java, FrameMaker, authoring, intranet, free software">
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<B> <TT><FONT SIZE=+2>S i m p l e </FONT></TT><BR> <TT><FONT SIZE=+2>D o c u m e n t </FONT></TT><BR> <TT><FONT SIZE=+2>F o r m a t </FONT></TT><BR> </B>
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<B>Key pages</B>
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<IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="catalog.html">Document Catalog</A><BR><IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="faq/index.html">Frequently Asked Questions</A><BR><IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="paper/sdfintro.html">Overview Paper</A>
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<IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/samples/">Sample Showcase</A><BR><IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/resources/">Resource Center</A><BR><IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/news/">Latest News</A>
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<B>What is it?</B>
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SDF is a freely available documentation system designed and developed by <A HREF="mailto:ianc@mincom.com">Ian Clatworthy</A>, with help from many others. Based on a simple, readable markup language, SDF generates high quality output in multiple formats, all derived from a single document source. Supported output formats include HTML, PostScript, PDF, man pages, POD, LaTeX, SGML, MIMS HTX and F6 help, MIF, RTF, Windows help and plain text. If you want to:
<P><IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> publish documents or reports on the Web or in multiple formats<BR> <IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> maintain a large documentation suite using rule-based formatting and hypertext generation<BR> <IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> embed documentation in source code or pretty print source code</P>
<P>then SDF may be for you.</P>
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<B>What does it need?</B>
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<IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> <A HREF="http://www.perl.com/perl/">Perl</A> 5.005 or later.<BR> <IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> For generating PostScript, the freely available <A HREF="http://www.easysw.com/~mike/htmldoc/">HTMLDOC</A> program or <A HREF="http://www.oasis.leo.org/perl/scripts/textproc/pod2ps.dsc.html">pod2ps</A> program or <A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~cg/sgmltools/">SGML-Tools</A> and LaTeX packages. Alternatively, you need a word processor which can import MIF or RTF - Adobe's <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/framemaker/main.html">FrameMaker</A> is preferred.<BR> <IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> For generating PDF, <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com">Adobe's</A> <A HREF="http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/">Acrobat</A> is recommended.<BR> <IMG SRC="sqbull.gif"> For generating Windows Help files, a help compiler is required.
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<B>Where can I get it?</B>
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The current version is <B>2.001</B>, released 25-May-99. You can download the latest release from <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/download/">http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/download/</A> in a variety of formats. SDF templates are also available from <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/templates/">http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/templates/</A>.
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<B>Support?</B>
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An on-line <A HREF="http://www.mincom.com/mtr/sdf/bugs/index.html">bug database</A> provides information on known bugs and requested enhancements. Any problems with the software or the documentation can be reported to the mailing list <A HREF="mailto:sdf-bugs@mincom.com">sdf-bugs@mincom.com</A>. For general queries, mail <A HREF="mailto:sdf-users@mincom.com">sdf-users@mincom.com</A>. To subscribe to either list, send a message to <A HREF="mailto:factotum@mincom.com">factotum@mincom.com</A> with <EM>subscribe sdf-bugs</EM> or <EM>subscribe sdf-users</EM> as the message body.
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<P ALIGN="Center">Questions about these pages? Send some mail to <A HREF="mailto:sdf-bugs@mincom.com">sdf-bugs@mincom.com</A>.</P>
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