HoTMetaL: SoftQuad Frequently Asked Questions
@ What is it?
SoftQuad HoTMetaL is an editor for the HTML files used on the World Wide Web.
It runs on Sun SPARC systems with X11 or OpenWindows, and under Microsoft
Windows. Use HoTMetaL to create new pages or to edit existing ones.
It's free, although a commercially supported version, SoftQuad HoTMetaL Pro,
is being worked on.
@ Where can I get SoftQuad HoTMetaL?
To the best of our knowledge, this is the current list where
SoftQuad HoTMetaL is now available for anonymous ftp:
ftp.ncsa.uiuc.edu:/Mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad
ftp.ifi.uio.no:/pub/SGML/HoTMetaL
sgml1.ex.ac.uk:SoftQuad
doc.ic.ac.uk:/pub/packages/WWW/ncsa/contrib/SoftQuad
askhp.ask.uni-karlsruhe.de:/pub/infosystems/mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad
ftp.cs.concordia.ca: pub/www
ftp.cc.gatech.edu in /pub/gvu/www/pitkow/misc
ftp.sunet.se:/pub/www/Mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad
ftp.uco.es:/www
olymp.wu-wien.ac.at:/pub/sgml/exeter/SoftQuad
ftp.germany.eu.net:/pub/infosystems/www/ncsa/Web/contrib/SoftQuad
ftp.informatik.uni-freiburg.de:/pub/WWW/editors/HoTMetaL
gatekeeper.dec.com: /pub/net/infosys/Mosaic/contrib/SoftQuad
We expect that all of these sites are likely to continue to
make HoTMetaL available, either through special arrangements
with SoftQuad or simply by mirroring the NCSA site.
@ Will there be other version/ports of HoTMetaL?
Yes. In all likelihood, the next ones will be for Macintosh,
HP-UX and for Digital UNIX machines. The porting schedule will largely
be determined by demand for the commercially available Pro version, however.
@ Why do files which work fine with Mosaic and the other
@ browsers sometimes not even open with HoTMetaL?
Mosaic and the others of the first generation of browsers were
designed to be very "forgiving" of errors in the markup in order
to make it as easy as possible to make information available.
In particular, they generally ignore any tag that has no meaning
to them.
But now members of the Web community have recognized that
there is great value in a more formal approach and they have begun
the process of using an International Standard -- SGML -- to declare
rules for the use of HTML. This will mean that HTML can be considered
an "application" of SGML, and will allow creators of HTML documents
to use SGML software (which is becoming fairly widespread) for
document creation.
This has several benefits:
* SGML uses tags (almost always in pairs of start-tag and end-tag)
to mark containers called elements. Earliest implementations of HTML
used some tags this way, but others simply as separators (of paragraphs,
for example), and some just individually. Maintaining the "containerness"
of the document's information structures enables searches restricted
by element, for example, and lets a user of SGML software search, for
example, for a work only when it appears in a title or in an anchor.
* SGML parsers, both commercial and free, exist. This means that
the SGML parser can do the work of ensuring the integrity of markup
before it gets rendered by a WWW browser, freeing developers to do
other, more interesting things with the element structures. They can
have confidence in the validity of the files they receive.
* HTML development can take advantage of years of experience in
SGML development in order to readily implement complex structures,
rather than reinvent them. For example, much work has been done in
the SGML community on table models and mathematics, and some of this
work may be useful to Web developers.
What HoTMetaL attempts to do is to provide a middle ground: To assist
people in creating documents which will easily to made to conform to
what will clearly be more restrictive rules in future HTML software; and
at the same time make it possible to continue to work with as many of
the old or "legacy" documents as can be handled. Naturally, however,
HoTMetaL cannot deal with the most seriously wrong legacy documents,
although perhaps future versions will incorporate tools to help with that
too.
@ What does this mean in practice for use of HoTMetaL?
For the creation of new files, we recommend you use HoTMetaL with
the default rules as set up in the distribution. (The rules_file
value in your sqhmrc file is set to "rules/html.mtl".)
This rules file (which is actually a compiled Document Type Definition
written in the Standard Generalize Markup Language -- an SGML DTD)
is our version of the work being currently conducted by interested
individuals around the world and being led by Dave Raggett of HP.
A separate file rules -- legacy.mtl -- is that DTD being created
by a committee led by Dan Connolly of HAL Systems. This set of rules
reflects the current capabilities of WWW browsers, and is lot looser
than the default rules.
@ How and when do I use the "legacy" rules file?
Primarily for legacy documents. :-)
If you attempt to open a file in HoTMetaL which, for whatever reason,
cannot be readily opened according to the default rules, you will be
asked if you wish to try using legacy.mtl rules file. Files which
have correct markup used more "loosely" will open with that set of
rules. If there are errors that really stump HoTMetaL -- markup in
angle brackets that isn't declared in the DTD, for example -- then
the file won't open at all in the free version. In HoTMetaL PRO, the
file will open as a text file and the Interpret or Validate command
will take you directly to the offending error with an error message.
@ What other new features do I get with the PRO version?
SoftQuad HoTMetaL PRO is a fully supported commercial version with
additional functionality such as WYSIWYG editing of complex tables,
spell-checking, user-defined macros, support for in-line parsing of text
files and long or short sets of menus. It should be available from SoftQuad
and its resellers by the end of July 1994 on Sun Motif and Microsoft
Windows for a list price of US$195.00 with a 90 day promotional price
of US$149.00.
@ Why aren't there more products like this?
Thank you for asking. (We take it as a kind of compliment.)
We had a head start, in that we've spent several years building
an SGML editor called SoftQuad Author/Editor. Since HTML can be
represented by an SGML DTD, to a great extent, preparing HoTMetaL
was a natural thing for us to do.
@ Why do I need to set an SQDIR variable?
SQDIR is needed for compatibility with our other products, not all
of which are X based. For the same reason, we have a config file
(~/.sqhmrc) as well as using X defaults. You can give the -sqdir option
to sqhm if you prefer (and build it into a shell script), as in
${HM}/hotmetal/bin/sqhm -sqdir ${HM}/hotmetal
@ Can I change the default browser?
@ We use "Mosaic" rather than "mosaic". HoTMetal doesn't seem to
@ find it. What do we do?
You can change the previewer by editing sqhmrc in the hotmetal directory;
you can change it for a single user by creating ~/.sqhmrc and including the
line
html_browser: Mosaic
@ Can I install HoTMetaL if I don't have root access?
You should be able to. If you can't there may be one of two
explanations:
If the issue is your X app-defaults file, Sqhm, then the
readme file explains how to create one locally.
If the issue is your XKeysymDB file, not...