[lazarus] Help files

[Michal Bukovjan]

Denis Leger wrote:

>Le Tuesday 18 December 2001 12:30, Florian Klaempfl a écrit :
>
>>At 09:36 17.12.01 +0000, you wrote:
>>
>>>Le Sunday 16 December 2001 15:01, Martin Waldenburg a écrit :
>>>
>>>>>Yes, but how is a .hlp file coded ?
>>>>>Is there any documentation about this format ?
>>>>>
>>>>http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-developmentaids-helpfile.htm
>>>>http://www.helpmaster.com/hlp-developmentaids-helpdeco.htm
>>>>
>>>>Help Decompiler 2.1
>>>>
>>>>Dissects HLP help files of Windows 3.0, 3.1, 3.11, and '95 and many
>>>>MVB multi media viewer titles into all files required for a rebuild
>>>>using the appropriate help compiler HC30, HC31, HCP, HCW, HCRTF,
>>>>WMVC, MMVC or MVC.
>>>>
>>>Well, i really don't like using microsoft format...
>>>
>>>I'll try to make something by myself, and you will say me if you like
>>>it or not.
>>>
>>>I hope it will be ready in a few weeks.
>>>
>>Isn't there a html component for the GTK? I think html is the
>>best format for online docs in our days, no?
>>
>
>
>Well, for the fun i will have doing it, i just want to try making my own 
>help system ;-)
>
>And i don't like very much the html format, in my opinion it is too 
>complicated for the very basic fonction we need : display help files. 
>
>In my opinion, online help just must :
>- show text and images (perhaps tables too, i'm not sure)
>- accept hypertext links
>- that's all.
>
Denis,

I would like to advise you not to try to create a new help formats, 
especially in the situation when a number of those currently exist,
HTML is, or may be, in fact quite simple (after all, it was created to 
do exactly what you say above!), and renderers do exist for this format, 
which is defined by the W3 consortium. There have been a lot of efforts 
to handle all aspects of modern systems! Just think aboout:

- human readable format of sources
- convertibility to other formats
- industry standard
- standardized hypertext markup notation
- multiple languages and charset encodings
- existing indexing and search engines
- XML compatible (XHTML DTDs)
- separation of content and format via CSS (great thing!)
- multiplatformness
- plethora of tools for authoring, editing, serving, cleaning, 
formatting, ...

I think there are many, many more advantages, here are just few I could 
think about.

If you want something more challenging, try learning DocBook format, and 
create HTML versions from that. Now that would be something!

Why not just take gtkhtml libs and use that? It does not support latest 
what-not in HTML (for that, one would use slower, although *MUCH* more 
sophisticated Mozilla/Gecko engine), but the gtkhtml engine is *FAST*

I have written some .HLP files before, and I write a lot of HTML today, 
and believe me, HLP is such a nuissance - unless you have proper tools, 
(available on Windows platform only), you will not get far. Even 
Microsoft is converting to HTML help as well. HLP files are obsolete 
(and God thanks for that).

Just my two cents. Please think twice before starting.

Michal Bukovjan