Convert Fairlight CMI Series IIX .HX help files to HTML.
The original help file compiler (called HCOMP) was written at Fairlight by the amazing Andrew Cannon around April 1982.
Help files were stored in files with .HX file extension. The compiler converts the files to a format for display on the CMI with 'hit points' for light pen navigation.
The HCOMP is written in 6809 assembler, and is about 1400 line of code including comments.
HCOMP is similar to TeX written in 1978 by Donald Knuth.
- .HX files use
&as the start of a formatting tag word. - A tag consists of:
&- two letter case-insenstive tag name
- one or more digits
- space or non printing character
- e.g.
"&tl12 Hello World"
- e.g.
- Help pages are a maximum of
64characters wide
| tag | Description |
|---|---|
&& |
& character |
&LM |
Set left margin in characters |
&RM |
Set right margin in characters |
&LS |
Set line spacing in pixels |
&TL |
Set top line vertical position in pixels |
&GC |
Go to column number |
&BX |
Define box with edges |
&BI |
Define inverted box |
&NL |
New line |
&NS |
New sheet |
&SU |
Start underline |
&EU |
End underline |