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::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::Times-Tribune:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
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| ASCIIweb Times-Tribune Vol. I Issue I. |
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.------------. . . |. . .|_____
| Welcome to | ,-. ,-| . |- . ,-. ,-. '-contents--'
| ASCIIweb! | |-' | | | | | | | | | intro |
'------------' `-' `-^ ' `' ' ' ' `-| installing |
.------------. ----------------------,|-- configuring|
| intro | `' conf files |
'------------' editing |
.------------. Editing .rfk files is the trickiest thing about security |
| manual | using ASCIIweb. Because of the fixed column tricks |
'------------' sizes, you must be careful about the column staticmode |
.------------. widths of your .rfk page elements, especially RFKML |
| license | l_menu.rfk and l_filler.rfk. Currently this credits |
'------------' requires padding out your l_* files to the COPYING |
.------------. appropriate width, although in the future more .-----------|
| directory | of this should be handled automagically. | .-----'
'------------' |. . .|
.------------. The "main" pages are automatically padded out, | . . |
| changelog | and since the r_menu files are on the right-hand |. . .|
'------------' side of the page, it is not critical that they | . . |
.------------. be padded on their right margins. |. . .|
| bugs | | . . |
'------------' That said, your l_* and r_* files should be |. . .|
.------------. exactly the width that is set in aw.conf by | . . |
| wishlist | the options lcolwidth and rcolwidth. Your "main" |. . .|
'------------' documents must have no lines longer than the | . . |
.------------. ccolwidth option, or else they will "break out" |. . .|
| website | and the r_* files will not be rendered. Try it | . . |
'------------' and see -- notice that in directory listings, the |. . .|
.------------. r_menu disappears -- because it is too wide for | . . |
| beta v0.90 | most ccolwidths. Rather than getting munged by |. . .|
'------------' the erratic column widths, asciiweb simply does | . . |
\...... . | not display them. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | It should also be noted that you are under no |. . .|
|. .| obligation to use l_* or r_* files at all -- | . . |
| . | ASCIIweb will be perfectly happy to run with just |. . .|
|. .| a header and a footer. It's completely up to you. | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| (In fact, if you plan to use form elements in your | . . |
| . | pages, you will probably have to skip the left |. . .|
|. .| and right elements -- hey, why not use a conf | . . |
| . | file to control that?!) |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | PITFALLS |. . .|
|. .| -------- | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| There are a number of pitfalls that one runs into | . . |
| . | while writing .rfk files. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | The first is, like any ASCII-art, the characters |. . .|
|. .| must line up properly, or they will not look | . . |
| . | the way they're intended to. This isn't so hard |. . .|
|. .| -- you just set your favorite text editor to wrap | . . |
| . | at ccolwidth -- no problem. No problem, that is, |. . .|
|. .| until you start adding HTML tags to your .rfk | . . |
| . | files. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | You may have a perfectly nice looking .rfk page, |. . .|
|. .| but when you start adding HTML for bolding and | . . |
| . | colors it will make the justification look |. . .|
|. .| terrible in plain text. ASCIIweb does not count | . . |
| . | characters within HTML tags, so as long as your |. . .|
|. .| tags are correct, your justification will remain | . . |
| . | the way you leave it. You'll get used to it. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | THAT SAID, there is a final pitfall that is |. . .|
|. .| perhaps the most annoying thing about writing | . . |
| . | .rfk files. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | LINEWRAPPING |. . .|
|. .| ------------ | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| ASCIIweb now has built-in line wrapping | . . |
| . | functionality, thanks to a patch from David |. . .|
|. .| Gardner! | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| The linewrapping code wraps the center column at | . . |
| . | the colwidth setting and also breaks and reforms |. . .|
|. .| adjacent, wrapping lines into a single paragraph. | . . |
| . | If you want short, non-wrapped lines without |. . .|
|. .| breaks, simply add newlines at the end of each | . . |
| . | nonwrapped line, like so: |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | asciiweb line wrap |. . .|
|. .| paragraphizes long lines | . . |
| . | but not the short ones |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | The linewrapping code also leaves blank lines |. . .|
|. .| intact, | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| like | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| so. | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| Linewrapping can be turned off by changing the | . . |
| . | value of textwrap in aw.conf or in conf files, |. . .|
|. .| which is important if you are intentionally | . . |
| . | breaking through the right column, or are using |. . .|
|. .| live directories, which typically are wider than | . . |
| . | your average ASCIIweb column. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | The code also gracefully handles HTML tags that |. . .|
|. .| cross line boundaries, which makes the following | . . |
| . | paragraph mostly obsolete, however we will leave |. . .|
|. .| it in for transition purposes: | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| If you have an HTML tag that flows over a line | . . |
| . | break, you *must* close the tag and |. . .|
|. .| reopen it on the next line -- or else the tag | . . |
| . | will extend through your entire rendered |. . .|
|. .| document and end where the terminal tag is. | . . |
| . | This is almost certainly *not* the behavior |. . .|
|. .| you want. Remember, ASCIIweb does not have any | . . |
| . | "hard" borders between it's text sections -- |. . .|
|. .| it's all just <pre> tags. | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| Sign up to our development list if you would like | . . |
| . | to contribute to the development of ASCIIweb. |. . .|
|. .| | . . |
| . | |. . .|
|. .| Back: Next: | . . |
| . | Configuring Security |. . .|
|. .| <-- --> | . . |
| . | |. . .|
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| The ASCIIweb Times-Tribune is a Tastytronic Industries newspaper. |
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Generated at: Thu Sep 11 15:24:02 CDT 2025