Re: Paragraph usage....

[lsmalley@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Lester C. Smalley)]

= From krezel@sweng.stortek.com Wed Oct 14 12:03:11 1998
= Date: Wed, 14 Oct 1998 11:44:48 -0400
= From: krezel@sweng.stortek.com (Lili Krezel)
= Message-Id: <199810141544.LAA04120@guido.stortek.com>
= To: framers@omsys.com
= Subject: Re: Paragraph usage....
= 
= I've frequently seen MIF files offered as a way to solve various 
= formatting problems in Frame, some of which I've experienced. But 
= is there such a thing as a MIF training course? Do you need to be
= a software developer to make sense of them? Of course I've used MIFs
= as a transfer file, and I've saved as MIF to iron out apparently
= corrupted files.
= 
= So I tried Grant's-and-Peter's method on a chapter file where I too
= wish to sort out the para tag usage. What I get is a 400-page (!!)
= 9.6 MB MIF file that takes 5 minutes to open. Admittedly, we use a 
= lot of tags, about 200+. Is this size MIF reasonable? It's not very
= manageable! I recently convinced the corporate hardware keepers to 
= increase the RAM on my Sun, which is why I can now open the MIF at all. 
= The attempt used to just crash Frame.
= 
= I found the tag definition section, but I can't see how plowing through 
= several hundred pages of that is any faster than clicking through 
= the chapter files manually and marking off the tags on a checklist. 
= What am I missing? Can anyone elaborate? Is this a technique better 
= suited to repetitive use than a one-off?
= 
= Lili Krezel
= 
= On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, Grant wrote:
= 
= > Save a copy of the document; in the copy, delete all content, 
= > then save as MIF.

Well, it certainly helps to have a programming background to make sense of
all the stuff in the MIF file. As for the size, MIF is incredibly large as
it decodes all the binary info in the file into ASCII text strings, and
of course includes all your content as well.

Perhaps you could generate an either a List of Paragraphs (LOP) or an
Alphabetical List of Paragraphs (APL) from your file(s).

Be sure to move EVERYTHING to the 'include' list by SHIFT Clinking on the 
Left-pointing arrow.

The default content of this is huge (basically repeats your documement),
but you can see WHAT tags are used by looking at the appropriate REFERENCE
page, and simply clicking through the sequence of "<$paratext><$pagenum>"
building blocks and ignoring the added (LOP/APL) suffix.

An option, as long as you are using a UNIX based enviroment, is to generate
theMIf file, but then process it via a script (SED, AWK, PERL) that extracts
the data you want.  This requires programming expertise to setup the script,
you you would never have to open the mif file itself to search for the info
you need.

-- Lester
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