
                             The Meaning of Liff
                             -------------------


What is it?
-----------

The file LIFF.HLP is a WinHelp 3.1 implementation of "The Meaning of Liff"
by Douglas Adams (the author of the five books in the increasingly inaccurately
named "The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" trilogy) and John Lloyd.  It's
a hilariously funny kind of dictionary which uses words from various places
around the world (mainly UK) and gives them new meanings describing various
experiences, feelings, situations etc. in life.  As the authors state in the
preface to the book:


In Life*, there are many hundreds of common experiences, feelings, situations
and even objects which we all know and recognize, but for which no words exist.

On the other hand, the world is littered with thousands of spare words which
spend their time doing nothing but loafing about on signposts pointing at
places.

Our job, as we see it, is to get these words down off the signposts and into
the mouths of babes and sucklings and so on, where they can start earning their
keep in everyday conversation and make a more positive contribution to society.

Douglas Adams
John Lloyd

*And, indeed, in Liff.


A lot of the words in the book are explained by referencing to other words in
the book, making it very suitable for a WinHelp implementation.

This implementation is as close to the book as it can get by using WinHelp.
There's even included a picture of it, which is natural size on a standard
640x480 VGA monitor.  The book also contains an extensive "Index of meanings",
which is implemented by using keywords accessible through the "Search"-button.

This WinHelp version also includes all the small maps showing where some of
the places are located on the globe (most of them are in the UK).


Further Information:
--------------------

LIFF.HLP is structured by using Xantippe from IRIS Media Systems.  It may be
distributed freely as long as this file LIFF.TXT and the icon file LIFF.ICO
are distributed along with it.  The source file to "The Meaning of Liff" is
included in the latest version of Xantippe, which can also be found in a
shareware version on CompuServe.  Compared to the help file that can be build
from the automatically generated files from Xantippe for version 3.0 or 3.1
of the Help Compiler, the following changes has been made to this WinHelp 3.1
specific version:

- Uses the CITATION, COPYRIGHT and ICON options.  (The icon is included for
  use in a Program Manager group.)

- Uses a MRB for the book picture, ensuring proper appearance on mono screens.

- Uses italics in the few places it's used in the book.  (Italics is not
  supported by Xantippe directly).

- Shortened context strings and the font table for size optimizations.

- Added a lot of "cosmetic" changes.  The textual contents are the same, but
  there has been added a gray non-scrolling region to the headings, and the
  text and background colors are now authored to always be black on white.
  The Contents topic shows a picture of the original book.  When clicked upon,
  the Preface topic appears.

- Added the "A-Z" secondary window, with a keyboard that can be used for
  choosing the letter you wish to see words beginning with.  The keyboard
  always shows the letter the current topic begins with in its "pressed down"
  state.  Below the keyboard is a small map, showing where some of the places
  beginning with the same letter as the current topic are located on the globe.
  The places shown in the maps can also be chosen directly.  Both the main and
  "A-Z" windows appear on fixed positions upon startup.

- Added the letter the current topic is beginning with to the end of the title
  in the main window.  The title changes dynamically to always show the letter
  currently being viewed, and is also shown below the icon when the window is
  minimized.

- Added the Copy button to the button bar for copying the whole contents of a
  topic without getting the Copy dialog box.

- Added better navigation controls to the button bar ( Up  [<<  <<  >>  >>] ),
  and optimized browse sequences, as described below.


Navigating "The Meaning of Liff":
---------------------------------

Being a dictionary, "The Meaning of Liff" is very hierarchically structured:


Contents --------- A --------- Aasleagh        (1st with "A")
             |           |---- Aberbeeg        (2nd with "A")
             |           |----    .
             |           |----    .
             |           |----    .
             |           |---- Aynho           (Last with "A")
             |
             |---- B --------- Babworth        (1st with "B")
             |           |---- Baldock         (2nd with "B")
             |           |----    .
             |           |----    .
             |           |----    .
             |           |---- Burwash         (Last with "B")
             |
             |     .
             |     .
             |     .
             |---- Z --------- Zeal Monachorum (1st and last with "Z")


All words beginning with the same letter becomes a separate browse sequence.
Xantippe doesn't generate a browse sequence for the first level (A,B,...,Z),
so this has been added.  These are controlled with the standard Browse Buttons
"<<" and ">>".  In addition to these, the "[<<"-button (press the "["-key) goes
to the first topic in the current sequence, and the ">>]"-button (press the
"]"-key) goes to the last topic in the current sequence.  Finally, the
"Up"-button has been added.  In contradiction to the standard "Back"-button,
which takes you back to the last *viewed* topic, the "Up"-button takes you one
*level* up in the hierarchy.  If you for instance are viewing topic "Baldock"
after having viewed topic "Babworth" (by pressing the ">>"-button), the
"Back"-button will take you back to topic "Baldock", where the "Up"-button
will take you one level up to the list of all the words beginning with "B".
All buttons are grayed according to the current context.


If you have any comments or suggestions, I can be contacted at 100023,3665
on CompuServe which is 100023.3665@compuserve.com from the Internet.

I hope you have as much fun using LIFF.HLP as I had creating it.  Enjoy!

Michael Malcolm Andersen
