Contents

Introduction

When creating a set of related HTML documents, it is often desirable to have consistent elements, such as navigation buttons, appear on each page. There are also times when the same basic material must be presented in several ways. Having a common source for the shared elements would allow a change to the common source to be propagated to all the related documents automatically. This is the primary role filled by HIP. Other solutions are, of course, possible and available, but none that I could find met my needs, so I created this simple program.

The following design criteria were established:

• Building block mentality, as opposed to full blown application. This is not a replacement for your favorite HTML editor, or a project management tool. HIP should, however, work well with those tools for a total solution.
• Respect the cross-platform nature of the web. HIP is basic ANSI C, not C++, not Visual anything, not special. If you have a C compiler for a system, you can probably use HIP on it without much change.
• Simple syntax which blends in to native HTML. HIP commands appear as comments in HTML. HIP is also very tolerant so as not to impose extra restrictions on your source.
• In-place operation to make the document self-contained. No separate source and processed versions are required.