Re: Gnome Help Browser

[David Merrill <david lupercalia net>]

On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 10:40:44AM -0600, John Fleck wrote:
> On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 10:07:52PM +0800, Malcolm Tredinnick wrote:
> > On Sun, Aug 19, 2001 at 09:51:00AM -0400, Alexander Kirillov wrote:
> > > 
> > > There is also a problem with links: if you use just a web browser,
> > > then the cross-linking between docs (given by <ulink type="help"
> > > url="gnome-help:nautilus">, or something like this) will likely to be
> > > broken, because a web browser know nothing about gnome-help
> > > protocol. Or this needs to be solved when doing docbook->html
> > > transformation. Same problem with <xref>'s
> > 
> > That is not a problem for the browser, it's a problem for the db2html
> > program. Using db2html means that with a certain xslt set, all the
> > utput will be valid html that can be loaded into any browser.
> > 
> 
> I think Sasha is right here. A help browser needs to understand what
> do with a "gnome-help:foo", "man:foo" or "info:food" URL, or linking
> between and among documents will not work. You're right that if we
> do gnome-db2htl3 right it will output valid html, but the browser
> still needs the additional ability to know that when it sees a GNOME
> help-related url it needs to hand it off to the help system.

I don't see how that follows. Yes, the *system* has to know how to
translate man:foo, but that doesn't mean the browser has to do it. Why
can't the browser talk to the library using http post?

-- 
Dr. David C. Merrill                     http://www.lupercalia.net
Linux Documentation Project                   david lupercalia net
Collection Editor & Coordinator            http://www.linuxdoc.org

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