Thread: CHM help format
Is there any plan to support the Microsoft "Compiled HTML Help" format? For me, it is always the most convenient way to access the docs.
I've made a CHM file that I use personally. http://www.cookiemonsters.org/MS_Help.zip. Perhaps it would be of use to other developers. It lacks an index, and the table of contents is incomplete (you have to browse to the deep pages instead of using the table of contents to go there directly), but it has full-text search and has been useful for me.
Postgresql-7.3.chm – This is the redistributed file containing all of the HTML files + the full-text search index.
Table of Contents.hhc – This is the Table of Contents file. It is a text file that could potentially be generated from the sgml docs with a Perl script. It is currently incomplete – it only has the top two or three levels.
PostgreSQL.hhp – This is a Microsoft HTML Help Workshop project file, containing settings for regenerating the CHM file. It is also a text file, and could also be generated by a Perl script after documentation updates.
Words.stp – This is a stop list of words that should not be indexed by the full-text search index.
To regenerate the CHM file (after updates to the documentation files, for example): The hhp and hhc files expect the HTML to have been extracted to a subdirectory called “HTML” and that the FAQs are in src/FAQ.
Doug Cook writes: > Is there any plan to support the Microsoft "Compiled HTML Help" format? No, but if you would like to tell us how to generate and test it, we could be interested. AFAIK, the standard DocBook style sheets support HTML Help output, so much of the work might already be done. -- Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net
XSL style sheets exist. I don't see anything in the DSSSL distro for equivalent DSSSL style sheets. I'm definitely nota docbook or DSSSL expert (although I did learn scheme in college). If you are using XML docbook, it is as simple as running the transform program and then running HHC (HTML Help Compiler)on the generated project file. The XSL generates the HHP (HTML Help Project) and HHC (HTML Help Contents) files,and the help compiler combines the HHC, HTML, and any other files (such as images) into the CHM. For somebody who was familiar with the SGML stuff, I think it wouldn't take a lot of time. The first problem is emittingthe HHC (table of contents) file. It is a pretty simple file, and pretty much in HTML. The HHP file could probablybe generated using cat and ls commands. That would be enough to make a decent HTML help file. Beyond that, there would be room for tweaking. A small change in the emitted HTML for index entries would add an index tothe HTML help file, and this would probably eliminate the need for a separate index page. A few other changes might alsobe made, but they would just be minor style changes. I have attached the TOC and HHP files (along with the full-text index stop word list) that I used to create an initial CHMfor the Postgres docs. They are all text files, and there isn't much mystery to them. ________________________________ From: Peter Eisentraut [mailto:peter_e@gmx.net] Sent: Tue 2/18/2003 3:02 PM To: Doug Cook Cc: pgsql-docs@postgresql.org Subject: Re: [DOCS] CHM help format Doug Cook writes: > Is there any plan to support the Microsoft "Compiled HTML Help" format? No, but if you would like to tell us how to generate and test it, we could be interested. AFAIK, the standard DocBook style sheets support HTML Help output, so much of the work might already be done. -- Peter Eisentraut peter_e@gmx.net