Help Browser?

[Erik Walthinsen <omega omegacs net>]

(***** I'm posting this for Ken Duck <twoducks@seul.org>, as he hasn't had
any luck sending it.  He's sent it 4 or 5 times in the last 3 days, to both
the new and old lists....  If anyone has any ideas what's wrong [yes, he's 
subscribed], e-mail him directly *****)
---------------------------------------

I was forwarded the following message from the gnome mailing list...

> ------- Forwarded Message
> Date: Wed, 14 Jan 1998 18:02:05 -0600
> From: Miguel de Icaza
> CC: gnome@athena.nuclecu.unam.mx
> Subject: Re: Gnome documentation system and gtt.<snip>

> > Right now Gtt includes all of the code inside gtt, we can reuse all
> > of this code for writing the gnome help browser.  Any takers for this
> > project?

<snip>

...  end of forwarded segment
- -----------------------------<

I am involved with the SEUL (Simple End User Linux) project which
started sometime in the summer. I am working on the help browser.
I was informed about your discussions on the creation of a help browser
for gnome and thought I should check it out.

We decided that we wanted the web browser and the help browser
separate entities. The help browser could be optimized more for the
purposes of help. I am currently preparing the 0.2 release. This version

includes rendering of text, html and man pages within the same help
environment.  The next release is planned to include a detailed search
component which will allow for search into the body, title, keywords
and anything else we want.

The help system includes both a help viewer, which uses different
display modules to display the various types of help, and a help
browser, which includes a contents browser which uses a
file/directory metaphor to simplify the browsing of the help system.
The help browser will also include the search program.

The system is (will be) easily extensible. The help program is
easily accessed by other programs, and can be extended with
little effort to view different file formats.

I have some brief description and images at
www.globalserve.net/~twoducks/seul-dev-help/
This will be updated this weekend to accomodate the
newest version.

However. I note that you have started discussions along the lines of
what a help system should contain. I thought that I would outline
the current help system we are developping and see if perhaps
their might be some co-operation.

Ken Duck
twoducks@globalserve.net

SEUL home page: www.seul.org