Learning SubML

Discussion in 'Feedback and Suggestions' started by Wendy, May 1, 2008.

  1. Wendy

    Thread Starter Moderator

    Mar 24, 2008
    I'm going to have to learn SubML, and have run into a minor stumbling block, first of many I'm sure.

    How do you enter a command line that uses SubML on a XP Pro machine? There are examples given in the tutorials, but they assume the presence of a command line to begin with.

    I have located another utility with some help from my friends that I feel is necessary at http://www.bobsoft.com/html2txt/ . This gives me the conversion program I need to pull the examples and code off the links given for SubML.

    I have also been checking out http://opencircuitdesign.com/xcircuit/ , which is the prefered illustration program for this site. Problem is, they use the .tgz extension, which is a decompression program I don't have. Any ideas?

    Might as well ask about the .tar compressions too while I'm about it.

    I have the feeling I'm dealing with Linux, which is cool, but I have never used beyond the Live! CD options.
  2. Dcrunkilton

    E-book Co-ordinator

    Jul 31, 2004
    Yes, you need to get a DOS prompt in a DOS window. Something along the lines of "Run command.com ". Although, you may need to find the complete path. Anybody know what directory it is in? Seems like "Find" would locate it for you.

    .tar is Linux/unix Tape Archive .

    Go to this page:


    and look for this link

    Self-installable executable (~510 KB): corresponds roughly to XCircuit-3.4.10

    This is the Windows version of Xcircuit.
  3. Georacer


    Nov 25, 2009
    Just reporting that the last link of the post above no longer leads to the desired file. Hosting time has propably expired.
  4. someonesdad

    Senior Member

    Jul 7, 2009
    You can start a command prompt in Windows using Start->Run and type cmd32 into the box (I'm in Linux now, so I can't check this exactly -- and I haven't run Windows in a month or two).

    You'll have to have the directory containing the program you want to run (sounds like SumML is some compiler or interpreter) in your path environment variable. This isn't exactly true (you can preface the name of the program by the path to the program), but it makes things easier.

    There are numerous tools which will handle the .tgz files, which are gzipped tar files. WinZip is one and there are others. When I work on Windows, I'm always at a bash shell prompt using cygwin, so the requisite tools are always in place. Then you'd type in 'tar zxf name_of_file.tgz' to decompress it. Note tar is a bit of an anomaly, as it doesn't have to have the options passed with a hyphen (but it will take it if you give it).
  5. Wendy

    Thread Starter Moderator

    Mar 24, 2008
    I started to send this as email, and decided to post it here instead.

    I've attached my last article I submitted, including the packed final package. The article.txt file is the base file that will be converted to the HTML file. The HTML file is what goes in the book.

    You need to give Dennis the article.txt file because he has to rename all the pictures names to something unique for the book. He has to do the conversions, but you need to make sure the article.txt file works (pwm.txt).

    The "SED commands.txt" is something I came up with, and I have to reinvent it every frigging time for every new article. It is the commands in the correct format so I don't have to type them in every time I test my article and it's embedded scripts. I use copy/paste a lot with this file.

    You have to use the command prompt in XP. If you are using Linux you need to use whatever passes for the command prompt. My boy Jim says this is the terminal, and is reached via <control><alt><t>. I don't use Linux, so I'll take his word for it.

    The "SED commands.txt" includes all the commands I use in the command prompt to reach the directory I've stashed my article, and then the command I need to use to pack the article in the article.txt file to the article.htm file. You view the HTML file to see if it went well and troubleshoot the formating.

    The necessary files and utilities are part of the package, they are inert until used in the commands incorporated in the "SED commands.txt" file.
  6. Georacer


    Nov 25, 2009
    Thanks a lot, Bill. Will start reading promptly.