Re: Nautilus as help browser - first impressions.

[<jfleck inkstain net>]

On Wed, 23 Aug 2000, Alexander Kirillov wrote:

> So: first of all, it does a good job of rendering man pages and decent
> job of rendering sgml docs. But it still has a number of problems:
> 
[snippage]
> 5. html docs 
> 
>    at the moment, help:appname can't find "index.html" (fixed by Ali
>    in CVS, I believe), but "help:/path/to/file" works, and html docs
>    are rendered well. 

I compiled the cvs last night, and this now works, (good work,
Ali!) with some reservations noted by Ali - internal links don't 
work, a gtkhtml problem that should be fixed when we can use Mozilla.

> 
> -----------
> 
> 6. sgml docs
> 
>    I only tried "help:/pat/to/file.sgml". It works fast (on my system
>    - PIII 500Mhz, 128 Mb RAM) even for large ones like "GDP
>    handbook". But here are problems (some of them already discussed in
>    gnome-doc-list, but anyway): 
> 
>    a. It doesn't support enitites, even — and …

The hackers should comment on the progress toward fixing entities, but
they have been sounding cheerfully optimistic about this of late. :)
I'd put this on the "critical before shipment" list, though some
workarounds seem possible (if not ideal).

> 
>    b. <xref> and <link> is only possible for sections/subsections: you
>    can't <xref> to a figure, a note, or a list entry. 
> 

Also "critical before shipment". I believe Ali has done some work on this.

>    c. It doesn't show <legalnotice> (I believe, Ali is working on this)
> 

The other critical item, in my opinion, is the navigation tools on the
html page - the "previous" "home" "next" buttons.


> 
> Wishlist: 
>   
>    1.  It'd be great if we could put the table of contents (TOC) of a doc in
>        the left panel so that you have a section shown in the right
>        panel and TOC in the left panel at the same time
> 

Neat idea.

>    2. I'd love to see TOC "expanding" - i.e., showing only top level
>       sections by default, but clicking on a section expands it so you
>       can see subsections, etc. 
> 

Neat idea.

>    3. I think we really need a "print" button - for those who want to
>       print out a section of a manual and read it. Nothing fancy. 
> 
>    4. List of man pages or info pages is, by necessity, very long. Why
>       not group them by first letter (..pages starting with A;
>       ...pages starting with B, etc)? Otherwise, you have to scroll a
>       lot to get to XFree86 page
>    
>    
> That seems to be it - for now. I'd like to hear everybody's opinion on
> which of these bugs are critical, and which we can live with. 
> 
> Sasha
> 



Cheers,

John