An interactive documentation system

Abstract

Most chronic users of time sharing computer systems are familiar with programs that allow the creation and manipulation of text files. Less often they have at their disposal programs that will format the document described by a text file, generating output such as a typist might produce. Rarely is there any mechanism by which graphics can be integrated with text. Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has a powerful, flexible and interactive computer-based documentation system that will format a source document description according to user specifications and incorporate illustrations to produce online documents, offset reproduction masters, 35mm color slides, movie titles, or viewgraphs. The flexibility of the system is greatly enhanced by the use of a device independent graphics library. Text may be plotted using the hardware characters specific to a device (when possible), or may be drawn as Hershey characters or polygonally outlined symbols. Illustrations may be defined in a simple 2d graphics language, and graphical output from application programs may also be incorporated directly into a document.