Path: news.uh.edu!barrett From: tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch (Thomas Voirol) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.reviews Subject: REVIEW: ARexxGuide 2.0a hypertext manual for ARexx Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.programmer Date: 17 Jun 1994 13:56:00 GMT Organization: The Amiga Online Review Column - ed. Daniel Barrett Lines: 209 Sender: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu (comp.sys.amiga.reviews moderator) Distribution: world Message-ID: <2tsa1g$jap@masala.cc.uh.edu> Reply-To: tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch (Thomas Voirol) NNTP-Posting-Host: karazm.math.uh.edu Keywords: hypertext, AmigaGuide, ARexx, programming, shareware Originator: barrett@karazm.math.uh.edu PRODUCT NAME ARexxGuide 2.0a BRIEF DESCRIPTION ARexxGuide is an extensive hypertext document in AmigaGuide format on the ARexx programming language. Do not confuse it with the South West Amiga Group's similarly named "Introduction To ARexx". This is an entirely different beast. AUTHOR/COMPANY INFORMATION Name: Robin Evans Address: 1020 Seneca #405 Seattle, WA 98101-2720 USA E-mail: robin@halcyon.com on Internet R.EVANS6 on GEnie r.evans6@genie.geis.com on Internet Availability: ARexxGuide can be obtained from many local BBSs and the Aminet ftp sites (util/rexx directory). LIST PRICE ARexxGuide is shareware. This means it is freely distributable, but if you find it useful, the author asks you to register. The shareware fee is $15 (US). Registration can be done from within ARexxGuide. A script asks you a few questions about your configuration and then assembles a text file which you can print out and mail in with the fee. SPECIAL HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS HARDWARE Each ARexxGuide file is smaller than 75KB, so no extra RAM should be necessary. A hard disk or a high density disk drive is recommended, since a complete installation requires about 1 MB of disk space. SOFTWARE AmigaOS 2.04 or later is required. It might work with AmigaDOS 1.3, however, if you have ARexx and AmigaGuide or an equivalent of the latter like Hyper. COPY PROTECTION None. MACHINE USED FOR TESTING Amiga 3000T, 2MB Chip RAM, 16MB Fast RAM Kickstart 40.68, Workbench 40.42 Multiview 40.8 Picasso II Graphics Board INSTALLATION Installation is a simple copy operation which can be done from Workbench. No Assigns or Path additions are necessary. If you invoke ARexxGuide from ToolManager or the likes, you should set the current directory to the one where ARexxGuide resides. REVIEW ARexxGuide starts with a nicely detailed, clearly arranged, main panel. From here you jump directly to the relevant chapters. Several entry points are given; that is, if you want to find a particular piece of information, there are usually several different "paths" that will lead you to it. If you are an ARexx beginner, you can browse through the Guide starting with the Introduction. The document turns out to be a complete course in ARexx, at the end of which you will be able to write programs. No prior knowledge of the language is necessary. Even a small history of Rexx is included. The seasoned ARexx programmer also will find ARexxGuide to be an invaluable on-line reference. The reference part of this documentation is divided logically into the chapters "Basic Elements", "Instructions", "Functions", "Operators", "Commands" and "Error Codes". ARexxGuide uses the hypertext capabilities of AmigaGuide extensively. This makes for a very lucid tree structure. You practically never have to read more than one or two pages of text, and almost every technical term is cross-referenced through a hypertext link. Finally, ARexxGuide encompasses a very thorough index which is the fastest way to look up the syntax and arguments of a command whose name you already know. All pages show the path by which they can be reached in the window's drag bar. On the bottom of each page, the Previous, Next and Contents links are displayed. All this makes navigating really easy. Distributed with the regular ARexxGuide is a requester version that, according to the author, will display term definition references in a requester window instead of jumping to the glossary. The requester version requires Nico Francois' reqtools.library and Rafael D'Halleweyn's rexxreqtools.library. However, since that Guide works properly only with V34 of the AmigaGuide utility, I could not try it out. DOCUMENTATION Since ARexxGuide IS documentation, there is not too much to say about this part ;^). Nevertheless, all the necessary meta-information (i.e., Distribution, Author, Registration and others) is there and easily accessible. LIKES I like and appreciate the enormous amount of work and care the author has put into ARexxGuide. It is very thoroughly detailed and provides almost all knowledge relevant to ARexx. I have not been able to spot any mistakes so far. DISLIKES AND SUGGESTIONS Dislikes I have to find yet. COMPARISON TO OTHER SIMILAR PRODUCTS The only product I know that is comparable to ARexxGuide is the aforementioned "Introduction To ARexx" by the South West Amiga Group. While being a nice tutorial also, it lacks in the reference field and is not as clearly structured. BUGS None found. There obviously were some in the example scripts of the 2.0 release which have been fixed in 2.0a. VENDOR SUPPORT Besides releasing the bug-fixed version 2.0a, the author has provided a 50KB patch archive to upgrade an existing ARexxGuide 2.0 installation. Users of slower modems will be thankful that they don't have to download a whole new version. WARRANTY None mentioned. CONCLUSIONS I rate this product 10 stars out of 10. Honest. Robin Evans has provided us with an indispensable on-line help for ARexx where Commodore neglected to do so. The $15 shareware fee is fair compensation for the incredible amount of time and dedication the author has put into this documentation. I encourage all ARexx programmers, seasoned or aspiring, to test this fine product and by all means send the shareware fee to Mr. Evans. REVIEW AUTHOR'S BACKGROUND I program in REXX for a living on IBM mainframe computers running under MVS/ESA, and I use IBM's very comprehensive TSO/E REXX documentation on a daily basis. COPYRIGHT NOTICE Copyright 1994 Thomas M. Voirol. All rights reserved. Thomas M. Voirol tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch Badenerstrasse 363 chwr9xv9@ibmmail.com CH-8003 Switzerland +41 1 400 16 42 +----------------------------+ +----//-----------------------+ | Thomas M. Voirol | | _ // Zurich, Switzerland | | Certified Amiga Magician | | \X/isual Magic Digital Arts | | tomv@vismag.limmat.net.ch | | ISDN: +41 (0)1 400 16 42 | +----------------------------+ +-----------------------------+ --- Daniel Barrett, Moderator, comp.sys.amiga.reviews Send reviews to: amiga-reviews-submissions@math.uh.edu Request information: amiga-reviews-requests@math.uh.edu Moderator mail: amiga-reviews@math.uh.edu Anonymous ftp site: math.uh.edu, in /pub/Amiga/comp.sys.amiga.reviews