[Lazarus] Extending FCL documentation

Hans-Peter Diettrich DrDiettrich1 at aol.com
Thu Feb 9 08:53:19 CET 2012


Graeme Geldenhuys schrieb:
> On 8 February 2012 22:28, Hans-Peter Diettrich  wrote:
>> Delphi came with PDF files for those who want documentation, and these docs
>> are well prepared for *reading*, not for use as context sensitive help. IMO
>> we should make the same distinction, between help and docs.
> 
> Why? I have a few OS/2 products from IBM (VisualAge, DB/2 etc). They
> all include about 3-5kg of books or "documentation" in the box (yes,
> they are truly huge and heavy). But those exact books are available
> via INF too - using the exact formatting (but with faster search,
> cross linking etc).

BC3.1 also came with 1m of printed docs, later on it was left to the 
user to print whatever docs he wanted to have, or to buy the books at 
extra cost.

> So no, Help and Documentation could very well be the same think. Just
> use the right format for the job.

You confuse the structure (and content) of documentation with the file 
type. When you write a book, you can store it in Word, HTML, PDF or 
whatever format you like. But such a book will hardly be usable for 
context sensitive help. Likewise you can merge all help topics into one 
document, but I'd not call the result a "book".

DoDi





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