[Lazarus] Lazarus helpfiles
Mark Morgan Lloyd
markMLl.lazarus at telemetry.co.uk
Tue Jul 10 10:59:13 CEST 2012
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]
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