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                            Dialog Tag Language
 
The Dialog Tag Language (DTL) is a formatting language consisting of a set
of tags that define the structure and appearence of text. You use DTL tags
to create help panels and to format the text in your help panels. Each tag
directs the IPF compiler to process or format subsequent text in a given
way. For example, the help tag directs the compiler to create a new help
panel; the dl tag directs the compiler to skip to a new line and start a
two-column list.
 
To use DTL tags in your source file, you insert each tag immediately before
the text that you want to have the given format. You can place the tags
anywhere in the file, not just the beginning of a line. A tag consists of an
opening angle bracket (<), a tag name, optional parameters, and a closing
angle bracket (>), so you can insert the tags using your text editor. Some
tags may be used only in the context of other tags──for example, a
figure-caption tag may be used only in a figure. There are the following
tags:
 
    <caution>             <lp>              </caution>
    <dd>                  <note>            </dl>
    <ddhd>                <nt>              </fig>
    <dl>                  <ol>              </help>
    <dt>                  <p>               </lines>
    <dthd>                <parml>           </nt>
    <fig>                 <pd>              </ol>
    <figcap>              <pt>              </parml>
    <h>                   <rp>              </rp>
    <help>                <sl>              </sl>
    <itop>                <ul>              </ul>
    <li>                  <warning>         </warning>
    <lines>               <xmp>             </xmp>
 
In addition, the tag ! is used to create comments in a DTL source file.
 
The general format of a help source file that uses the DTL tags is as
follows:
 
    <!-- Sample help panel -->
    <!DOCTYPE HM SYSTEM[]>
    <help res=1234>Selecting a Choice
    <p>After you select a choice, choose an option
    from the action-bar pull-down to work on the
    choice, then press Enter.
    <p>If you decide not to select a choice, then press
    the Esc key to exit the panel.
    </help>
 
The help and /help tags are required for each help panel. The res parameter
with the help tag specifies the resource number for the help panel. This is
the number used by the application to access and display the help panel. The
text immediately following the help tag is the title of the help panel. This
title appears in the table of contents for the help document. Text can be
formatted as paragraphs by using the paragraph tag, p.
 
The IPF compiler can compile existing DTL source files to create help panels
for programs ported to Presentation Manager. If the compiler encounters tags
that it does not process, it displays a warning message and/or ignores the
tag. In particular, the compiler ignores the following tags:
 
    <area>
    <info>
    <isyn>
 
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