Refreshed TC-Tutorial

[Clo]

  Hello everybody !

• A "refreshed" version of the English Tutorial is available at:
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/charries/download.htm#tcmd

• Both CHM and HTML folders can be downloaded from that URL.

• Some new things… I put up my umbrella, waiting your remarks

• Of course, this shall be updated when we'll have the TC 6.02

Kind regards,
Claude
Clo

[white]

Like some people who commented on the tutorial here, I too do not like the excessive use of fonts, colors and graphics. In fact, I think this makes the tutorial quite unreadable and therefor useless.
As mentioned in the thread mentioned above, it is possible to download the HTML version and adjust the style sheet file, but I think it is a bad thing for a tutorial to have to do this to make it readable.
In my opinion simply deleting the style sheet file model.css increases readability by a thousand fold.

The separate frame for the title makes no sense to me too. I suggest to use the title "Total Commander Tutorial" and place it in the title bar of both the CHM version (which has no title at the moment) and HTML version (which now has the title "Total Commander Help - Tutorial -").

There are HTML errors in the tutorial which are partly generated by the HTML editor Helios.
To be more precise: the HTML files do not conform to the definition specified in the doctype line at the top of the HTML files.
I suggest to use the correct doctype lines and to remove the errors.

[Clo]

2white
Good evening,

• Obviously, this folder isn't made for you!
- So, simply don't use it. I made this job for young users liking coloured things, an for the oldest like me, for who
skeleton-like fonts ARE unreadable...
• The title-frame exists too in the original *.HLP folder, you might tell to Ch. Ghisler that it's a nonsense...
- Besides, that frame is displayed alright at home in the CHM version...
• Whether you found HTML "errors", please explain us what problems had you to display the pages because them?
• All main codes are written by the editor, so you could inform its author directly:
webmasterATtoilefrancophoneDOTnet

Regards,
Clo

[pdavit]

>I made this job for young users liking coloured things...

Oh come on!!!

We know this isn't true!

You shouldn't feel irritated by White's comments because at the end of the day he is trying to suggest improvements for a better end result.

The looks of your tutorial might fit some users ( a handful maybe ) but surely you aren't fighting just for them?! It's something that follows your own personality and signature and that's more than fine by me but if you like it to be more wide-spread and accepted by others I believe you should consider the standard (boring) method. That's the reason you have it available online isn't it!

I don't want to be harsh in no way, I'm just trying to be realistic.

PS: I am confused though! I wouldn't thought that someone so attracted by colours and the like could ever use TC with its spartan approach, don't you think?!

[Leif]

Yes, come on. Clo! We like 'boring'! I do, anyway! Much easier on my old eyes! And 'young users' don't read manuals, do they? Not even colourful ones!
Allez-y ! Moins de couleurs, s'il te plaît !! Mes yeux !!!!

[white]

Obviously, this folder isn't made for you!
- So, simply don't use it.

Am I still allowed to share my opinion about it?

I made this job for young users liking coloured things, an for the oldest like me, for who
skeleton-like fonts ARE unreadable...

When you write a tutorial I think you want to share information. In my opinion this tutorial does a lousy job.

The title-frame exists too in the original *.HLP folder, you might tell to Ch. Ghisler that it's a nonsense...

The two things don't compare. The frame in Total Commander's Help serves as a header for the first page (not for the other pages). The first page of your tutorial already has a header (namely "Index") and the frame is visible for all pages. If you want to use the frame to serve as a header like in Total Commander's Help, I suggest to try to better imitate Total Commander's Help. I mean: make the frame to appear like part of the page and not a seperate window and remove the frame for the other pages.

- Besides, that frame is displayed alright at home in the CHM version...

I do not understand what you mean by this.

Whether you found HTML "errors", please explain us what problems had you to display the pages because them?

Not much. I use IE6 and Opera 7.23. As far as I know all is displayed well in IE6 and in Opera only the numbering of the ordered lists are not right caused by the faulty START="a" attribute of the OL elements in w-model.htm. You removed two of the five instances of START="a" in your last update (and there is another one in wcm-en07.htm).
I still recommend to remove HTML errors, so it is less likely to cause problems in various browsers and various versions of browsers.

All main codes are written by the editor, so you could inform its author directly:
webmasterATtoilefrancophoneDOTnet

When you use Helios to generate a HTML file containing a frameset the result will look like this:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">
 
<!-- http://www.toilefrancophone.net -->
 
<HTML>
 
<HEAD>
<TITLE>(Titre)</TITLE>
<META HTTP-EQUIV="Content-Type" CONTENT="text/html;CHARSET=iso-8859-1">
<META NAME="generator" CONTENT="Helios 8.0">
</HEAD>
 
<FRAMESET cols="20%,*" BORDER="1">
 
<FRAME SRC="" NORESIZE>
<FRAME SRC="" NORESIZE>
 
</FRAMESET>
 
<NOFRAMES>
Your browser doesn't support the frames!
</NOFRAMES>
</HTML>

The first line specifies the document type. Helios always generates this line for new HTML files and for new HTML files containing a frameset. For HTML files containing a frameset this document type specification is wrong. The word "Frameset" is missing:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Frameset//EN">

Once this line is corrected you can use a validator like http://validator.w3.org to find the HTML errors.
You will find that the NOFRAMES element is at the wrong place (just like in your tutorial). It should be just before the </FRAMESET> tag.
Helios does not leave me a good impression to do these basic things wrong.

In the Total Commander Tutorial HTML files you use the document type specification as generated by Helios:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0//EN">

"DTD HTML 4.0" means Document Type Definition HTML 4.0 Strict. It is your responsibility to change this line if you want to include things in the HTML file which do not conform to this Document Type Definition.
For the tutorial it is more likely you want to use HTML 4.0 Transitional:

Code: Select all

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">

Once this line is corrected you can use a validator like http://validator.w3.org to find the HTML errors.

[Hacker]

2Leif

And 'young users' don't read manuals, do they?

I do...

Roman

[IGL]

2 white
That was a good explanation of HTML errors!
I also agree that colors are somehow "disturbing". And frame on top of window takes valuable screen space.
Although I may not be too happy reading this because of these colors. , still, I am grateful to the author of this tutorial for making it.

[Clo]

2IGL
  Hi !
• Thanks. To hear more, please send me an email...

 Kind regards,
Claude
Clo

[IGL]

To be more specific about colors - it's better to have colorful images than no images. Talking about text - at least in opera - there is a function I use frequently - it allows to view page in "user mode" where I can select "High contrast" and have the page being sidplayed: white characters on black background! Additionally there is an option to disable images.
Also you can start to view w-model.htm with LISTER! This is not a joke, I do it sometimes. I like to view pages using my own defined colors (unless it's page of our forum member Hacker - it already has nice black background - at least now).
Anyway - it is the content of the tutorial that is the most important!
Thanks Clo - not only from me but (I guess) mainly from other users (novice users) who will then "squeeze" more functionality from TC thanks to this tutorial.

[TucknDar]

To Clo:

Would you mind if I use the html-files you've created to make tc-tutorial.chm with my own style.css and release it? I'll make some changes here and there, both to images and text.

Oh, and if you DO mind, I'll obviously not use your work to make this, and I won't even hold it against you! I'll just use the original docs.

[Clo]

2IGL
  Hi !
* Thanks again. I use Lister too a lot with HTML when working on this. It's handy, since all links work, to browse a big folder in search of a certain word or sentence...
• Ch. Ghisler had even added a feature I requested, allowing to use <A ID=...> or <A NAME=...>, both work...
• Everyone can adjust the display following the softs he/she uses...
• Yes, the content is the most important. We can improve it with some tips & tricks discovered here. I'ld be glad to get various notes, in order to add them, whether it is not too complicated for new users, indeed. The folder size isn't limited, while the HLP is: the diskette !

 Kind regards,
Claude
Clo

[Hacker]

IGL,

(unless it's page of our forum member Hacker - it already has nice black background - at least now)

Well, that won't change. I like bright text on dark background.

Thanks
Roman