Building the DOSBook Database
The preliminary stage of building DOSBook is to convert the FrameMaker* DR-DOS User Guide to ASCII format. This process is described in more detail below.
The User Guide is converted to ASCII format, so that the various compiler programs can work on them. This is done in FrameMaker.
1. From the File menu, select Save As. Select the option for Text only. Enter a new name with the extension .TXT and choose the <Save> button. Another dialog box appears which offers the option of having carriage returns at the end of each line or paragraph. You can also select different options as to how the tables will be shown in the ASCII format.
2. Select the options for a carriage return after each line and also to have the tables written as rows. Then choose the <Save> button.
Since you have to use the compiler many times, it is sensible to use a batch file. The batch file used to produce the English version of DOSBook has the following switches:
SVF2OLH /v /e /o /l DOSBOOK /t ``DOSBOOK'' DRDOS.PUBWhere
When the compilation is successful, the database is created within
a text file that has the extension .OLH. The filename corresponds
to that of the .PUB file, and the .OLH file is created in the same
directory as the .PUB file.
Checking the DOSBook Database
When the compiler does not report any more errors and produces a
database, you can test your work by running the DOSBook program.
The DOSBook program assumes that your .OLH file is called DRDOS.OLH.
Make sure that you have the program DOSBOOK.EXE in the same directory
as the DOSBook database (the .OLH file), and then, at the system prompt,
enter the following:DOSBOOK
You can then run through the database to see if everything is correct.
There will probably be places where the appearance or behaviour of
information is incorrect, especially if there were warning messages
when you compiled the database.