The MANUAL program offers a very simple but extremely effective way
of setting up and maintaining any document, such as a manual or
report, which is divided into numbered sections.

To add a new section to a document, just add it into the Contents
Page. To delete a section, delete it from the Contents Page.

The numbering scheme used is the Dewey Decimal system.

This means that a document may be split into sections numbered
sequentially starting with section number 1.

A section may be further split into subsections, also numbered
sequentially starting with number 1.

For example, the third subsection of the second section would be
numbered 2.3.

There may be up to 255 sections; each divided into from zero to 255
subsections; subsections may themselves be further divided into
subsubsections, and so on, to a maximum depth of ten.

The maximum number of subsections at any given level is 255.

Therefore, the maximum total number of subsections is 255 raised to
the power 10.

Each subsection, at each level is kept in a separate DOS file.

These are indexed by a free-format Contents Page which tells MANUAL
the name of the DOS file associated with each subsection listed in
the Contents Page. The documentation of the MANUAL and Scripta
programs are each MANUAL documents.

Subsection files may be edited using the Editor or Word Processor of
your choice. A default Editor name is stored withing a MANUAL
configuration file but may be over-ridden by a parameter line in the
Contents Page.

MANUAL expects to find all Contents Page files in the DOS directory
which is current when the program is first entered. By default,
Subsection files are expected to reside in the same directory but,
in practice, this default will usually be over-ridden by a parameter
in the Contents Page.

Typically, each MANUAL document's subsection files will reside in a
subdirectory of the main MANUAL directory. In the case of the
Scripta documentation, the subsection files all reside in the
subdirectory named %help.

Sections and subsections need not be numbered sequentially and their
associated DOS text files need not exist. This allows documents to
be created piece-meal with sections being omitted and added later.

MANUAL automatically creates DOS files for subsections which do not
exist when you attempt to edit them.

If you edit the Contents Page, MANUAL automatically rereads it upon
return from your Editor, reformatting the document as necessary.

Finally, MANUAL allows you to read the document, section by section,
moving freely up, down and sideways through the subsection hierarchy,
editing if necessary as you go.

You can print either the Contents Page, a single subsection, the
entire document, or any subtree of subsections, starting at any
point within the document.

The Contents Page may be printed as a separate item but will be
printed automatically if you print the entire document rather
than just a subsection.

MANUAL will automatically Form Feed at the start of every major
section or subsection, as required. Formatting requirements are
specified in the Contents Page.
