[Lazarus] Extending FCL documentation

[Michael Schnell]

On 02/08/2012 10:34 AM, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
> As I mentioned in my previous message, you could also allow the IDE to 
> control an external viewer (which could take any shape or size) via 
> IPC etc. 
Displaying the hint Windows is one issue, another is managing the 
content. Of course the searchable content of the multiple help files is 
valid to be displayed, but currently the hint windows also display 
viable information derived from the source files of the project under 
development.
>> Are there decent chances to allow the users to select DocView as their
>> primary help viewer in the IDE (rather than install it as an external tool)?
> There is nothing that needs to be changed in DocView as far as I know.
Yes: hint window handling: see above. Maybe more still to be detected.
> No technical limitations. You simply need to create a Lazarus Package
> that registers DocView as a viewer, for what help context and format.
>
> I used to do this, but it never worked well in Lazarus IDE. Did you
> see the recent comments in this mailing list about end-users that
> can't get the CHM viewer working? My point exactly!  So using the
> External Tools method was fool proof, 15 seconds max to setup and
> doesn't require an IDE recompile.
Yep. Providing a dedicated "external help viewer" interface should be 
fool proof, does not need recompilation (even though I don't esteem this 
very important), and allows for multiple help online and offline viewers 
be separately managed and distributed projects (also possible with 
packages).
> End-users don't know where to contribute help too.
Touche ! ;-)

-Michael