[ros-dev] Implementing a help system
Casper Hornstrup
ch at csh-consult.dk
Mon Feb 21 21:26:10 CET 2005
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ros-dev-bounces at reactos.com
> [mailto:ros-dev-bounces at reactos.com] On Behalf Of Karim Liman-Tinguiri
> Sent: 21. februar 2005 16:09
> To: ros-dev at reactos.com
> Subject: [ros-dev] Implementing a help system
>
> Hello,
>
> Therefore I am wondering if there is a current project started to code
> one. If not, I plan to code an open-source version of the winhlp32.exe
> file located in the system folder able to open and show windows .hlp
> files. The goal is to have a winhlp32.exe that runs and behaves
> exactly like (or very close to) that of the Microsoft copyrighted
> winhlp32.exe. It should therefore be able to serve existing windows
> apps with a help server without any modification to the program. I've
> verified the dependencies of winhlp32.exe; all of them have already
> been implemented in ReactOS, so it should not be a big deal to code it
> from scratch. Despite the fact that the .hlp file format isn't
> officially documented, it has already been reverse engineered and its
> documentation can be found on the web (2). However, if there already
> is a help support project up and running, I intend to join it.
Winhelp is obviously needed for compatibility, but a MS Help clone would
be better to use for ReactOS online documentation due to its flexibility.
There is a GPL CHM library at: http://freshmeat.net/projects/chmlib/.
> Besides, as soon as this is ready (why not before ?), I advise we
> convert all documentation on the reactos.com's library (and all
> further documentation) to the DocBook (SGML)
> format: it has the advantage of being easily converted on-the-fly to
> pdf, html, post-script and many others. A tool chain to convert it to
> .hlp will however have to be created (meanwhile we can use the
> standard tools for compiling .hlp files).
See http://svn.reactos.com/viewcvs/trunk/rosdocs/
Casper
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