[Lazarus] Building help files: the nitty-gritty

[William Oliveira Ferreira]

Seems to be a good project.

Could someone from LazCore make a test on it?

I think it should be a step foward to a Lazarus' Embedded Help System

2012/7/28 Kostas Michalopoulos <badsectoracula at gmail.com>

> I just noticed this (there is a lot of activity in the mailing list and i
> only browse it occasionally).
>
> On 10/7/2012 6:39 μμ, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> My question still stands though. I don't know what is the
>> recommendation for "application help" with LCL based applications. eg:
>> I create a new project which is a new Programming Editor. I want to
>> supply a end-user help file with my binary - like all good software
>> does. What help file format do I use (as the developer of that
>> product), and how do I create/edit that help file?
>>
>>
> Personally i have written a custom help system:
>
> http://badsector.github.com/**lazhelp/<http://badsector.github.com/lazhelp/>
>
> It is made up of a bunch of components that can either provide the help
> content from inside the program (f.e. from a resource or just a string
> list) or from an external file. The help can be displayed as a
> popup/tooltip, inside a panel using a custom control or a separate window
> with back, forward, home and other optional buttons (like introduction,
> tutorial, etc). It can also be registered as a help provider for LCL (so
> you can use HelpContext etc in controls).
>
> The viewer is written with LCL so it should be portable (although there
> are some inconsistencies, especially regarding scrollbars). There aren't
> many things supported by the language (which has a simple syntax) but it
> should be enough for simple applications. For larger help sites, it
> probably needs more stuff (f.e. there is no table support).
>
> I have used it for Runtime World, my 3D world editor:
>
> http://chiselapp.com/user/**badsector/repository/rtworld/<http://chiselapp.com/user/badsector/repository/rtworld/>
>
> and for LILCard, a hypercard-like program:
>
> https://github.com/badsector/**lilcard<https://github.com/badsector/lilcard>
>
> (the latter shows how the help system can become part of the executable
> itself since lilcard is a single executable in all platforms)
>
> The reason i made it is, as you have said in other threads, i find Lazarus
> current help situation to be inadequate at least. Additionally, i don't
> want to distribute a huge executable for viewing CHM files (in the case the
> user's computer do not have the ability to view CHM files) and i find the
> CHM viewer's user interface to be somewhat complex.
>
> Kostas "Bad Sector" Michalopoulos
>
>
>
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>



-- 
________________________________
William de Oliveira Ferreira
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