| Re: two windows helpfile reader for linux [message #40761 is a reply to message #40760] |
Thu, 26 August 2004 18:44  |
JD Smith
Messages: 850
Registered: December 1999
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Senior Member |
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On Thu, 26 Aug 2004 19:26:14 +0200, Reimar Bauer wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> here are two fine routines to read the windows helpfiles with linux
>
> * gnochm is updated (http://sourceforge.net/projects/gnochm/)
> (GnoCHM is a CHM file viewer for Gnome2. It uses PyCHM, a set of Python
> wrappers around the C library libchm)
>
>
> * HelpExplorer (http://www.kamasoftware.com/helpexplorer.php)
> (HelpExplorer - is a full-feature system of help for OS Linux. It gives
> a
> wide range of capacities to customize the user's interface and it can
> be easily integrated into your applications. One of the main advantages
> of this system is 100% support of both MS-HTML Help 1.x (CHM) and
> WinHelp help file format widely used in OS Windows. It enables to use
> the same files of documents for applications of OS Linux and OS
> Windows.)
>
>
> At the moment I have some problems to get gnochm compiling because I have
> SuSE and as desktop KDE choosen. With RedHat and Gnome2 there should be no
> problem. It would be fine to see a complete rpm package for SuSE.
>
> HelpExplorer comes as 10MB tgz file with all needed sub routines and
> installs by default in the users $HOME dir. It has all what you need for
> interactive access to the online help. For Linux Users it is free of
> charge, but closed source.
>
> For distributors there is a Deployment License necessary. With that and an
> additional library the HelpExplorer could be attached to an aplication.
>
> If JDs feature request for gnochm was sucessfully added (I believe yes)
> then this is with no additional fee implemented in gnochm. (License GPL)
I just had the GNOCHM developer test the new IDL v6.1 CHM file, and
managed to get it working myself on a friend's workstation. It works
well. To get it working yourself, you absolutely need to have
gtkhtml2 version 2.6.1 or higher, or gnochm crashes when you access
most topics (I had 2.6.0 -- what a difference .1 makes). I believe
this comes with Fedora 2, or you can find it yourself. Note: gtkhtml3
is not used.
It's a bit slow to start, and internal links inside individual pages
don't work, but the index and search feature do! As far as
programmatic control (ala KEYHH on windows) for apps (like IDLWAVE)
that like to pick help topics, this is in the works, but not yet
coplete. Everything is rendered pretty well (about as well as in
Mozilla), and you can see a screenshots here:
turtle.as.arizona.edu/idl/gnochm_icontour.png
and
turtle.as.arizona.edu/idl/gnochm_convol.png
Things are speedy once it starts up. You'll notice gtkhtml2 does not
render Microsoft's illegal use of "Symbol" font in HTML documents, so
certain (just a few) glyphs get messed up. You can trick Mozilla into
displaying these characters; not sure if gtkhtml2 can be tricked as
well. The major advantage over a pure HTML approach are the index and
search features.
That said, it seems RSI has gotten the hint that PDF just isn't
flexible, and will switching to a new HTML-based documentation system
for UNIX users for the next release. But if GNOCHM works out its
kinks and adds programmability by then, we might be able to use just
the .CHM file for both Windows and Linux (not sure if there are
similar programs for OSX).
JD
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