[Lazarus] Lazarus helpfiles

[Mark Morgan Lloyd]

I've never got into the habit of using Lazarus help, but have just 
revisited it because of an extra user here who's asking "awkward 
questions" :-)

At a minimum, please could somebody review what I have done since I've 
made a couple of minor edits to the Wiki page which is referenced by the 
Lazarus IDE Help -> Online Help menu entry.

I've edited the Wiki page 
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Installing_Help_in_the_IDE adding text that 
explicitly notes that adding Kylix helpfiles or additional .inf files 
are options. This was discussed in this list several months ago, and I 
believe that it was agreed that any suggestion that Lazarus /requires/ 
Kylix helpfiles is unwise.

I note that the final link from the IDE goes straight to installing help 
for fpgui. Is this really appropriate, and if it is why aren't there 
links there to comparable instructions for GTK etc.?

I suggest that the Kylix-related stuff in 
http://wiki.freepascal.org/Installing_Help_in_the_IDE would actually be 
better on a page of its own, or moved right to the bottom of that one. 
What somebody ending up on that wiki page needs to see is getting local 
help for the RTL/FCL/LCL etc. working, not a screed on how to repurpose 
somebody else's files that's non-portable since it relies on proprietary 
software (HyperHelp).

Finally, and particularly if somebody doesn't like my changes, I suggest 
that while having the IDE point to a Wiki page is reasonable it would 
probably be wise to protect it from casual editing: Lazarus help is a 
sufficiently contentious issue without having new users confused because 
somebody has broken a link.

-- 
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl .AT. telemetry.co .DOT. uk

[Opinions above are the author's, not those of his employers or colleagues]