Information Presentation Facility (IPF) is a system for presenting

online help Online help is topic-oriented, procedural or reference information delivered through computer software. It is a form of user assistance. The purpose of most online help is to assist in using a software application, web application or operating syst ...

and

hypertext Hypertext is E-text, text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references (hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typi ...

on IBM

OS/2 OS/2 (Operating System/2) is a series of computer operating systems, initially created by Microsoft and IBM under the leadership of IBM software designer Ed Iacobucci. As a result of a feud between the two companies over how to position OS/2 ...

systems. IPF also refers to the

markup language Markup language refers to a text-encoding system consisting of a set of symbols inserted in a text document to control its structure, formatting, or the relationship between its parts. Markup is often used to control the display of the document ...

that is used to create IPF content. The IPF language has its origins in BookMaster and

Generalized Markup Language Generalized Markup Language (GML) is a set of macros that implement intent-based (procedural) markup tags for the IBM text formatter, SCRIPT. SCRIPT/VS is the main component of IBM's Document Composition Facility (DCF). A ''starter set'' of ...

developed by IBM. The IPF language is very similar to the well-known

HTML The HyperText Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as JavaScri ...

language, version 3.0, with a range of additional possibilities. Therefore, a trained user may use virtually any word processor when creating IPF documents. The IPF language consists of 45 basic commands. IPF files are compiled using the IPF Compiler (IPFC) into viewable INF or HLP files. IPF HLP files are distinct from the

WinHelp Microsoft WinHelp is a proprietary format for online help files that can be displayed by the Microsoft Help browser ''winhelp.exe'' or ''winhlp32.exe''. The file format is based on Rich Text Format (RTF). It remained a popular Help platform from ...

HLP files that are prevalent in

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. OS/2 contains a built in viewer, and there are other viewers available for other platforms.

Example 1 - IBM

Here is a sample of IPF markup from IBM'
Information Presentation Facility Programming Guide


     .* This is a comment line
     :userdoc.
     :title.Endangered Mammals
     :h1 res=001. The Manatee

     :p.
     The manatee has a broad flat tail and two flipper
     like forelegs.  There are no back legs.
     The manatee's large upper lip is split in two and
     can be used like fingers to place food into the
     mouth.  Bristly hair protrudes from its lips,
     and almost buried in its hide are small eyes, with
     which it can barely see.

     :euserdoc.

Example 2 - PM123 User's Manual


:lm margin=2.:font facename=Helv size=24x10.
:p.:hp8.Welcome to PM123 !:ehp8.
:font facename=Helv size=16x8.
:p.:p.
Hello and welcome to the wonderful world of digital music on OS/2. First we
must congratulate you for choosing the best MPEG-audio player available for
OS/2! PM123 has been in development since beginning of 1997 and has become
the most advanced player on OS/2. Some of you may have used the earlier
betas of PM123 and for your convenience, here are the new features in this
release:
.br
:ul compact.
:li. New skin options, allowing PM123 to be modified to just about anything. 
:li. Graphical :hp2.equalizer:ehp2., including pre-amplification and band mute.
:li. Support for plugins, a :hp2.spectrum analyzer:ehp2. and :hp2.oscilloscope:ehp2. plugin.
:li. :hp2.Playlist Manager:ehp2. for users, allowing easier managing of playlists.
:li. Better HTTP streaming support: support for URLs in playlist, and M3Us for playlists.
:li. Recursive directory adding.
:li. Commandline and remote control of PM123.
:li. General improvements in all parts of the player.
:eul.
.br
.br
:p.

Status of IPF

IPF is still used as part of OS/2's latest incarnation,

ArcaOS ArcaOS is an operating system based on OS/2, developed and marketed by Arca Noae, LLC under license from IBM. It was codenamed Blue Lion during its development. It builds on OS/2 Warp 4.52 by adding support for new hardware, fixing defects and l ...

. It is otherwise rarely used, although there are several tools that can read or write IPF files.
HTMIPF
Converts HTML to IPF
HyperMake
Multi-format documentation generator

Commercial IPF editor
UDO
Open source multi-format documentation generator
VyperHelp
Open source IPF editor and converter *

Free Pascal Free Pascal Compiler (FPC) is a compiler for the closely related programming-language dialects Pascal and Object Pascal. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License, witexception clausesthat allow static linking against it ...

's documentation generator (fpdoc), can also generate OS/2's IPF output.

Help Viewers

* The original

VIEW.EXE application
NewView v2.x
This is an open source project and code is available fro
Netlabs
*

's text base IDE has support for various help formats -

's INF format being one of them. * The fpGUI Toolkit project also has an INF viewer called DocView. It is an open source project and was originally a port of NewView v2.x, but has since seen some different designs and changes. INF is also the official help file format of fpGUI Toolkit.

External links

INF file format

PM123man.INF - PM123 User's Manual version 0.99 (Source File Distribution, 298 KB)
{{Document markup languages Markup languages OS/2 Online help