Directory support/rail

README file for the Rail package, version 1.0 #1

The Rail package allows you to include syntax diagrams (also known as
railroad diagrams) in a LaTeX document. A UNIX manual page and LaTeX
documentation are included. The package consists of a LaTeX style file
(rail.sty) and a C program (rail) and works in two passes not unlike
BibTeX. Diagrams are specified in a regular-expression like format
between \begin{rail} and \end{rail} brackets, and are formatted using
the standard LaTeX picture environment.

To use the package, you need a UNIX system with LaTeX. Actually, the
rail program should be portable to non-UNIX systems, but you need lex
and yacc (or compatible programs such as flex and bison) and a C
compiler. No fancy ANSI C constructions are used, and the program
passes lint quite silently.

Caveat: To get diagrams in the documentation you must first compile
        the program.

To compile, just type "make". Yacc will report 2 reduce/reduce
conflicts; this is normal.

To create rail.dvi (DVI version of rail.tex) and rail.txt (plain text
version of rail.man) use "make doc". You can also use "make rail.dvi"
or "make rail.txt" to create only one of them.

To install, edit the Makefile to set up the various directories where
things should be installed (BINDIR,TEXDIR,MANDIR,MANSUFFIX), then type
the command "make install".

To clean up, type "make clean".

To create SHAR.* files, type "make shar".

To create a TAR file, type "make tar".

To lint everything, type "make lint"

Besides the examples in rail.tex, there is another file with bizarre
test cases, try.tex. This can be used as a regression test after
modifications.

As of version 1.0, the Rail package is available for Internet anonymous
FTP from host phoibos.cs.kun.nl (131.174.81.1) in the directory pub/Rail.
There is both a compressed and an uncompressed tar file, named rail.1.0.tar
and rail.1.0.tar.Z, respectively. If you cannot use FTP, mail copies can
be requested from the author of the package.

Please report any bugs or improvements to me, and have fun.

				L.W.J. Rooijakkers
				University of Nijmegen
				The Netherlands
				E-mail: lwj@cs.kun.nl

Update history:

09-Oct-1990 L. Rooijakkers	first available for local distribution
07-Feb-1991 L. Rooijakkers	several enhancements
08-Feb-1991 L. Rooijakkers	version 1.0 #0
12-Feb-1991 L. Rooijakkers	version 1.0 #1 portability mods