README for the DocBook Stylesheets Frame Support

Introduction
------------

Support for frames is a common request.  Supporting frames with
a stylesheet that builds a frames-only version of a document has
never been very appealing to me, so I haven't bothered. (The
main problem is that this approach doesn't help solve the
difficult problem of the navigation frame.)

Recent changes to the stylesheets have made another approach
practical.  The files in this directory provide frames support
using a set of techniques that require almost no modification
to the HTML.  The single required change is a link to a CSS
stylesheet.

One benefit of this technique is that I can imaging framed and
non-framed versions of a document using exactly the same files
(with symbolic links, or something).  The only difference
between the two versions would be the CSS stylesheet applied.

The downside to this technique is that it requires a fairly modern
browser.  In order for this to work, your browser must support:

 - Frames
 - Dynamic HTML
 - CSS

At present, only IE 4.01SP1 (or later, presumably) is supported.
In particular, Netscape is not supported.

  *************************************************************
  * I tried for several days to make this implementation work *
  * in Netscape.  As near as I can tell, Netscape through     *
  * version 4.5 simply does not have enough power in its      *
  * object model to make this practical.  If you can make it  *
  * work, I'd be delighted to include support for Netscape,   *
  * but I'm not going to spend anymore time on it in the near *
  * future.						      *
  *************************************************************

I'm really disappointed that I can't get this working under some
browser other than IE.

Installation
------------

1. Create a directory to hold your framed document
2. Copy docbook.css, docbook.js, *.htm, and the ../images/toc-*.gif images
   into that directory.
3. Process your document with the frames.dsl stylesheet (or an extension
   thereof).
4. Fire up your browser and point it at frames.htm.  If your document isn't
   a "<book>", you'll have to edit frames.htm to make the body frame load
   correctly the first time.

Warranty
--------

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES
OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND
NONINFRINGEMENT.  IN NO EVENT SHALL NORMAN WALSH OR ANY OTHER
CONTRIBUTOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY,
WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING
FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR
OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

Contacting the Author
---------------------

These stylesheets are maintained by Norman Walsh, <ndw@nwalsh.com>.

The best way to reach norm is by email.  You will find additional
contact information at http://nwalsh.com/~ndw/
