This DOS port of noweb was created using 386 versions of watcom C v10.0a,
perl 5, and icon. 

A dos specific port of noweb is needed because Norman uses unix script files
as front-ends for his noweb pipeline.  Since dos cannot handle unix shell
scripts (as far as I know), and it seems to have a goofy pipeline, I
replaced the shell scripts with perl scripts that do work under dos (given
the perl executable).  The only other effort required was to write watcom
compatible makefiles, which I call makefile.wcc.  Otherwise, absolutely no
changes to Norman's C or Icon code were required.

This dos port of noweb 2.7 comes in three zip files: nwdosbin, nwdossrc, and
nwdossup.  The first, nwdosbin.zip, has the noweb executable files.  The
second, nwdossrc, had the perl directory and makefile.wcc files that I used
to create the executables and batch files in nwdosbin.zip.  The third,
nwdossup.zip, contains a minimal perl and icon executable distribution;
please read readme.pl, relnotes.pl, copying.pl, icon.doc, and icon.frm.

I have packaged my noweb dos port this way to ease porting future noweb
versions.  I foresee two possible scenarios for dos noweb users:  

1.)  never used noweb and only want the executables.
     a.) do not have perl or icon.
            This user must download nwdosbin.zip and nwdossup.zip and unzip
	    the files into a directory on the dos path.  Formatted man pages
	    are in the zip file man.zip.
     b.) already have perl and icon.
            This user only needs to get nwdosbin.zip.

2.) An experienced noweb user who wants to build his/her own noweb dos
     distribution. 

     First get Norman's official noweb distribution.  Then get the dos
     specific source files from nwdossup.zip.  If you don't have a working
     version of perl or icon, get the perl and icon supporting executables
     from nwdossup.zip.  Finally, build the dos noweb distribution in the
     same way as the unix distribution but use wmake -f makefile.wcc in each
     directory.  

Please look at any readme.* and *.doc files.

All noweb executables should go in a directory on your path.  Set the
%NOLIB% environment variable to be that directory and also set the environment
variable %DIRSEP% appropriately.  i.e.,
set NOLIB=c:\noweb\bin
set DIRSEP=\

I use these two environment variables in an attempt to make porting the perl
scripts to a unix machine easier. (I would say trivial, but I have not
tested my perl scripts on my unix box, and I am sure there are bugs :-( ).
But since Norman's shell scripts work just fine on a unix machine, the perl
scripts are not really needed when running noweb on a unix machine.  Why do
I have to use dos???!!! 

I do not pretend to write code that is consumable for the general public.  I
am a hacker at best.  I am making this noweb dos distribution available so
that others might benefit and in appreciation of Norman's wonderful noweb
tool.  I reserve no rights to the code nor do I take any responsibility.
(Yes, I am trying to make a full disclaimer!) I hope that Norman will be
generous enough to fold the dos distribution (in some form or other) into
the official noweb distribution.  

Be warned that the perl executables are from the perl 5 alpha (or possibly
beta, I can't remember now) dos distribution, and the perl documentation
HIGHLY recommends to backup your disk before installing and using perl!
(This is appears to be a cover your tail statement, because the perl
executables appear to be very stable, and I have been using this noweb with
perl for several months without incident.  Besides, we should always backup
our hard disk anyway, right? :-)

Good luck!

Phil Miller
philip.miller@jhuapl.edu

P.S.  The full perl distribution is available from:
    	    ftp.einet.net:/pub/perl5
    	    ftp.khoros.unm.edu:/pub/perl/msdos
    	    ftp.ee.umanitoba.ca:/pub/msdos/perl/perl5

The full icon distribution is available from: cs.arizona.edu

