[Lazarus] Lazarus IDE help and Application help formats

[Mattias Gärtner]

Zitat von Graeme Geldenhuys <graemeg at opensoft.homeip.net>:

> Mattias Gärtner wrote:
> [...]
>> When someone needs help at a certain place, then a F1 should open the
>> help for that - context sensitive help. For example when a user is
>> in the compiler options dialog, a F1 should tell the help viewer to
>
> This is exactly what I want to address. Currently Lazarus doesn't  
> have off-line help, and doesn't provide a help system for developers  
> own programs.

Why do you write that?
a) you don't know it
b) you don't like it


>> open the help for the 'compiler options dialog'. That's what I mean
>> with support for "keywords" and "remote control". The online help
>
>
> fpdoc has keyword support and the new versions generate index pages.  
> The "custom help viewer" that we right can work like 'lhelp'. Index,  
> keyword and Search tabs on the left side and a HTML viewer component  
> on the right side. Maybe we can even modify 'lhelp' to suite our  
> needs.

I think this discussion is somewhat fuzzy.
There are several help sources, each with their own problems. Here are  
the most prominent:

1. the FPC help as latex files
2. the FCL help as fpdoc files
3. the lazarus packages help as fpdoc files (e.g. LCL)
4. the lazarus and fpc wiki pages

1. the FPC help as latex files
* nice pages
* edit: latex, send patches to Michel VC
* as html:
** created via latex libs and scripts,
** viewed by webbrowser,
** search via google&co,
** reference from IDE: difficult
* as pdf:
** created via latex libs and scripts,
** viewed by pdf viewer,
** search via pdf viewer,
** reference from IDE: difficult

2. the FCL help as fpdoc files
* edit: lazde, in a separate svn branch, send patches to FPC team
* as html:
** created via scripts,
** viewed via webbrowser,
** search via google&co
** reference from IDE: via codetools
* as chm:
** created via scripts,
** viewed via chmhelp,
** search via chmhelp
** reference from IDE: via codetools

3. the lazarus packages help as fpdoc files (e.g. LCL)
* edit: fpdoc editor or lazde, send patches to bug tracker
* as html:
** create via scripts, eventually: by IDE
** viewed via webbrowser,
** search via google&co
** reference from IDE: via codetools
* as simple html:
** created on the fly by IDE,
** viewed via IDE,
** search not implemented
** reference from IDE: via codetools
* as chm:
** created via scripts, eventually: by IDE
** viewed via chmhelp,
** search via chmhelp
** reference from IDE: via codetools

4. the lazarus and fpc wiki pages
* edit: on the webserver
* as html:
** created by webserver
** viewed via webbrowser
** search via webserver and google&co
** reference from IDE: via URL table


Mattias