CRDSS_Task1_17-1_ModelDocumentation

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that information under the home page will be extracted from existing documentation or new documentation that is being developed for the CRDSS. It is important to rely on existing documentation as the master copy of documentation while allowing updates in the master copy to be retransferred to appropriate formats within the CRDSS. This allows the authors of the documentation to continue supporting the documentation, which benefits the CRDSS by allowing the CRDSS to update to improved versions of the documentation (rather than Mosaic freezing a version that may become outdated). RTi anticipates that the use of and document languages like HTML will become more important as access to information via the Internet increases and because Mosaic is supported on UNIX workstations, Microsoft Windows, and Macintosh computers. It is the hope of the consultant that more documentation products within the CRDSS will use HTML as the master copy of the documentation. Mosaic Existing model manuals may not be easily transferred to the document format. For example, equations that are part of the existing MODSIM WordPerfect documentation do not easily transfer to other formats (nor do they easily transfer between PC word-processor software). Possible alternatives in this case are to re-enter the equations in the desired document format, generate the equation as a graphic that can be imported into other documents, or save the entire document in a format that can be displayed on-line. Re-entering the equation will not be cost-effective because it requires too much manual intervention that would have to be repeated each time the master document changes. Saving equations as graphics is an option that is still being studied. Saving the entire document in a format that can be viewed on-line can most easily be accomplished by saving the document as a PostScript file. Public domain software and products from workstation vendors (including SGI) are available to display PostScript files in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format. PostScript files viewed on the screen retain all of the information in the original document (including graphics, equations, etc.); however, such documents may be more difficult to read because the limited resolution of the screen cannot display very fine printing details. RTi recommends that initial model documentation include as much valuable content as possible without expending extensive resources on the reformatting of documentation. At a minimum, documentation for each model will include a PostScript dump of the documentation that can be viewed with a program and printed on a PostScript printer. For models that have hard-copy documentation that is difficult to implement in the CRDSS (e.g., the USBR's CRSM and AOP documentation), the minimum documentation for the CRDSS will be a UNIX man page with a program overview and a reference to the hard-copy documentation. The core documentation will be Mosai tied together using a simple c home page, which may include graphics such as screen dumps from the model interfaces. The next iteration of documentation will be to develop more extensive hypertext documentation Mosaic within and will be pursued if funds are available. Public domain utilities for converting wp2x WordPerfect and FrameMaker to HTML (e.g., ) are being tested to determine their effectiveness in automated translation of document formats. These utilities may allow existing documentation to be implemented more effectively. The addition of content to documentation will also be pursued based on the work during development of the system. The on-line documentation should reflect the current state of the system. The implementation of model documentation for the CRDSS will follow the guidelines specified in Task Memorandum 1.05-12. The documentation for each model will be archived in the location of 2 A275 06.29.94 1.17-1 Malers