Integrated Help TOC

[TurboRascal]

Sure, a PDF manual. Mr Feature Creep Next, you'll want it searchable, cross platform, with context-sensitive help - hey, perhaps a bit like the chm viewer we have now

(More seriously, having the chms as pdf would be nice - and they already exist for the FPC part of things. Presumably you could create an lcl.pdf using fpdoc - though on Linux only)

But there already IS lcl.chm file! Why make it a pdf when chm is already a better solution for class reference? I mentioned pdf only as an option for the _non-existing_ IDE manual, because it's easier to do - a quick and dirty job could be to create a document, slap many IDE screenshots in it and write short descriptions for everything on them... and here comes a basic IDE manual for the totally clueless

I don't really see my propositions as a case of "creeping featuritis", the changes I propose are actually quite small (read it again ). Ok, perhaps I didn't write clearly enough...

...
It was about http://svn.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/gentoc.pp?root=docs&view=log being a simple script. It will also generate an entry for the LCL and lazutils (the latter since yesterday) when run in a directory with these in them.
...

So you say toc.chm should also link to lcl.chm if I understood correctly? The toc.chm I got with Lazarus does not...

[marcov]

Amy:  I assume they took the 2.6.0 FPC documentation, added lcl.chm, but didn't regenerate the toc.chm file.

Try http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/toc.chm  (also knows "lazutils.chm")

[TurboRascal]

Try http://www.stack.nl/~marcov/toc.chm  (also knows "lazutils.chm")

This one does link to the lcl.chm and lazutils.chm, thanks! It's strange that Lazarus comes with the file lacking that Lazarus-specific part... I've checked both in the 1.0RC1 release and trunk and it's the same. Perhaps a bug should be filed for this?

Now, if only we had a Help menu item which would invoke that file, that's it. I guess that calls for another bug report?

[BigChimp]

Sure, a PDF manual. Mr Feature Creep Next, you'll want it searchable, cross platform, with context-sensitive help - hey, perhaps a bit like the chm viewer we have now

(More seriously, having the chms as pdf would be nice - and they already exist for the FPC part of things. Presumably you could create an lcl.pdf using fpdoc - though on Linux only)

Also I don't understand what online help page you refer to, there is only that html doc you get when you click Online Help

But there already IS lcl.chm file! Why make it a pdf when chm is already a better solution for class reference? I mentioned pdf only as an option for the _non-existing_ IDE manual, because it's easier to do - a quick and dirty job could be to create a document, slap many IDE screenshots in it and write short descriptions for everything on them... and here comes a basic IDE manual for the totally clueless

I don't really see my propositions as a case of "creeping featuritis", the changes I propose are actually quite small (read it again ). Ok, perhaps I didn't write clearly enough...

...
It was about http://svn.freepascal.org/cgi-bin/viewvc.cgi/trunk/gentoc.pp?root=docs&view=log being a simple script. It will also generate an entry for the LCL and lazutils (the latter since yesterday) when run in a directory with these in them.
...

So you say toc.chm should also link to lcl.chm if I understood correctly? The toc.chm I got with Lazarus does not...

Uhm Arny, could you mess with the quote tags a bit please?

But there already IS lcl.chm file! Why make it a pdf when chm is already a better solution for class reference? I mentioned pdf only as an option for the _non-existing_ IDE manual

So you meant that? Sorry, I must have skimmed that part. I mistakenly thought you'd meant LCL.

There are, BTW already some manuals written. Motaz on this forum has written one. There's one in French which is fairly comprehensive. It just lacks somebody to slam them into the docs folder and perhaps pretty them up.

See the wiki (documentation article I'd think) for details on links etc.

[BigChimp]

This one does link to the lcl.chm and lazutils.chm, thanks! It's strange that Lazarus comes with the file lacking that Lazarus-specific part... I've checked both in the 1.0RC1 release and trunk and it's the same. Perhaps a bug should be filed for this?

Now, if only we had a Help menu item which would invoke that file, that's it. I guess that calls for another bug report?

Yes & yes

[TurboRascal]

Uhm Arny, could you mess with the quote tags a bit please?

Messing with the quote tags above - done

So you meant that? Sorry, I must have skimmed that part. I mistakenly thought you'd meant LCL.

 

There are, BTW already some manuals written. Motaz on this forum has written one. There's one in French which is fairly comprehensive. It just lacks somebody to slam them into the docs folder and perhaps pretty them up.

See the wiki (documentation article I'd think) for details on links etc.

I'm not too much concerned wit the IDE help/manual ATM - after all, I (mostly) know how to use the IDE (until something occasionally changes) As everybody else, I'm currently more concerned with scratching an itch. To me, the most useful feature is the ability to easily access and browse programmer's technical references anytime from the help menu, so I'm proposing changes in that direction.

Yes & yes

So, if no one objects or informs me there already are such reports posted, I'll post the bug reports...

[TurboRascal]

I understand. My point was that having lhelp open all chm files will at least give you an overview of all available help files, whether you press F1 for context-sensitive help or a Help key combo or menu command, which shouldn't.

This way, searching for concepts that may exist in another (or multiple) chm file is possible

To me there isn't much difference between the toc.chm and directly showing the help files in lhelp as the former only shows the titles and a brief description of the files, but I can understand you'd want to see it.... and of course, opening toc.chm if not doing context-sensitive help makes sense.

When we're at it, just a comment for this since I saw you filed a bug report. For what I can see, the choice of the proper chm file in context help is handled the same way as in Delphi, by popping up the dialog asking you to choose if you need the same keyword from say, RTL or LCL...

If I understand correctly what you're asking, that feature seems to be an already done solution...

[BigChimp]

I think you don't understand correctly...

If I press F1 on an LCL identifier, lhelp pops up with LCL help.
Now I can't search for RTL or other concepts then as their CHMs don't open. This is not nice if you don't know if you are using the best keyword/tool for the job (example: don't know if it's documented already but there is DirectoryExistsUTF8 in Lazarus and DirectoryExists in FPC).
I also can't browse other help files.

I'd have to open the other chms manually in lhelp for this to happen.l

[Leledumbo]

If I press F1 on an LCL identifier, lhelp pops up with LCL help. I can't search for RTL or other concepts then as their CHMs don't open. I also can't browse other help files.

That's weird... I even have my chm help settings empty and lhelp knows which chm to open... (not only for identifiers, but keywords are also supported)

[BigChimp]

That's weird... I even have my chm help settings empty and lhelp knows which chm to open... (not only for identifiers, but keywords are also supported)

I'm not saying it doesn't know what chm file it should open. I edited the post above, hope it helps clarify what I mean.

[Leledumbo]

OK, I see what you mean is since lhelp only opens 1 specific chm, you can't search for other things from currently opened lhelp.

[BigChimp]

Yep. And you can't browse through them either.

That might be partially worked around by opening toc.chm, but:
1. you'll have to first manually open the chms via the links there anyway
2. toc.chm doesn't get opened when starting lhelp (because the only way it is started now is with context-sensitive help which should end up e.g. in lcl.chm, never in toc.chm)

Edit: hint: the patch in the issue works too well: it fixes the issue by opening all chm and all other help files (including online help) the first time the system starts lhep.
I need help from somebody to strip it down to only opening the chms

[TurboRascal]

Yep. And you can't browse through them either.

That might be partially worked around by opening toc.chm, but:
1. you'll have to first manually open the chms via the links there anyway
2. toc.chm doesn't get opened when starting lhelp (because the only way it is started now is with context-sensitive help which should end up e.g. in lcl.chm, never in toc.chm)

Ah, now I see... you actually want more or less the same thing as I do - the ability to open any help file at will. The only difference is that you want it when you already get context help open, while I want to get that from the menu. I guess both options would be welcome and make the help system closer to Delphi's...

[BigChimp]

Yep.

So, if no one objects or informs me there already are such reports posted, I'll post the bug reports...

Did you get a chance to file those reports - or were there already bug reports on this? Haven't seen anything related come up.

[TurboRascal]

Did you get a chance to file those reports - or were there already bug reports on this? Haven't seen anything related come up.

I've checked on the mantis too, the only report the relevant search returns is yours. So I guess I'll file the reports...