Re: jrb's help ideas

[Mikael Hallendal <micke codefactory se>]

måndag 2001-09-03 klockan 21.38 skrev Eric Baudais:

> 2) Help needs to be local.  This argument goes back to many people not having 
> a good internet connection.  If I want help on a certain application, I expect 
> to click the help button on the application and a window will pop up showing 
> me at least some basic help.  If my network connection is slow, that help 
> could take one minute or more.  This will infuriate users because they are 
> already frustrated with the application and making them wait so long for the 
> help file to be downloaded will make them more angry.

I think he was talking about having a local helpserver providing the
data, so that you don't have to use the Internet to browse it.

> Nautilus is the only program which integrates the help files seamlessly.  The 
> specification being written is to determine a minimum a web browser needs to 
> integrate the help files seamlessly.  This will hopefully lead to a lightweight
> browser to be modified or created.  A lot of the specification is based on how 
> Nautilus integrates the help files.  The goal is the specification is to 
> encourage other web browsers to integrate GNOME's help files seamlessly.

Yes and this is what I'm doing and I guess others will to and I think
that having a default helpbrowser that is really good at only servering
help and nothing else is the way to go for GNOME/KDE.

Also, one other problem with using a browser is that you can't limit
what a user browses too. I like to see that a user can't browse outside
the help documents. Otherwise a new user might end up anywhere think
that it's still the help documents he/she browses.

> The problem with a local help file server is port 80 will need to be opened 
> to listen for requests from the web browser.  This is a huge potential security
> risk.  Many crackers test port 80, among others, for weaknesses.  A help file 
> server provides a potential weakness.  I believe that a good system 
> adminstrator can reduce this risk, but the target GNOME user (newbie with 
> minimum computer knowledge) will not even know a potential security risk 
> exists.

1) it doesn't need to be on port 80.
2) it could be configured to drop any connections not coming from the  
   local machine.

Regards,
  Mikael Hallendal

-- 
Mikael Hallendal                micke codefactory se
CodeFactory AB                  http://www.codefactory.se/
Office: +46 (0)8 587 583 05     Cell: +46 (0)709 718 918