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Based on discussions with the development team, it has been decided that the initial version of <br />Mosaic <br /> on-line documentation for CRDSS will consist of high-level HTML files that define the <br />overall structure of the on-line documentation and individual home pages for each major software <br />product. <br />Mosaic <br /> uses the concept of ?home pages? to define documentation structure. Simply put, each <br />different documentation set is defined by a top-level document ?page? that sets the organization for <br />documents referenced within the top-level document. The file structure for each document under a <br />home page is relative to the home page. For example, a main CRDSS home page can exist that <br />provides high-level introductory material to CRDSS. This main home page also provides hypertext <br />links to other home pages for specific products (e.g., MODSIM, Glossary, etc.). Because <br />documentation for any one product may be quite complex, such documentation is usually organized <br />Mosaic <br />into a directory structure. requires that the top-level home page be specified using an <br />absolute path. However, it is inefficient to require that all documentation on a system use absolute <br />paths because individual home pages may move on the system (e.g., <br /> may move to ). <br />/crdss/crss/doc/crss.html /crdss/crss/doc/online/crss.html <br />Mosaic <br />The solution to this is provided by a feature. Basically, if a reference is made to an HTML <br />file using an absolute path, and the referenced document references a third document with a relative <br />path, then Mosaic is smart enough to put the two paths to together to find the file on the system. For <br />example, the following works fine: <br />/crdss/doc/online/html/crdss.html <br />reference files in local directory using relative paths <br />reference the home page: <br />/crdss/crss/doc/online/crss.html <br />/crdss/crss/doc/online/crss.html <br />reference files in local directory using relative paths <br />Mosaic <br />This allows the HTML files and supporting files that are developed for to be stored with <br />each appropriate software product while still being accessible from the main home page. The HTML <br />files within a product's documentation need only use relative paths. If the location of the <br />documentation for a product changes, only the reference in the main home page need be changed. <br />It is unclear to RTi whether all of the HTML and supporting files should be copied from the source <br />location to a more centralized documentation directory such as . Making a copy <br />/crdss/doc <br />Mosaic <br />would allow all of the information to potentially be isolated from the source code for <br />software products. However, this adds an extra burden to the system in terms of disk space <br />requirements, and also adds the maintenance burden of having to copy the files. RTi proposes that <br />the home pages and supporting files for a software product be left in a directory with the source code <br />for the product. Distributions of the CRDSS will then include the documentation directory but not <br />the source code directory. For example, the archive machine at RTi will have the following files: <br />(source code) <br />/crdss/crss/crsm/ <br />doc/online/*.html <br />and machines to which CRDSS are distributed will have: <br />/crdss/crss/doc/online/*.html <br />4 <br />A275 06.29.94 1.05-12 Malers <br />