HelpSystem (was Documentation Team)

If you want to evaluate directly use:

  Installer squeaksource
     project: 'HelpSystem';
     install: 'HelpSystem-Core';
     install: 'HelpSystem-Tests';
     install: 'Metacello-Help';
     install: 'Pharo-Project-Help';
     install: 'Squeak-Project-Help';
     install: 'Linux-10Minutes'.
(Smalltalk at: #HelpBrowser) open.

Now with a 10 minutes guide on Linux ;)

>Does this tool support easy export of the model to other formats (e.g., text
>files on disk?) If not, how hard would this be to add?

The model = simple instances of HelpTopic. Look at this class
or check instances:

   Integer asHelpTopic inspect.  
   HelpOnHelp asHelpTopic inspect.  

Should be easy to recursively traverse the topic and
subtopics to write to disk. Original idea was to maintain
them in-image but you can have them external if you like.

You can even create them from external files (XML, ...)
if you want. There is no "authoring" mode/support yet - you
have to use the usual Smalltalk tools.

>Are the model objects happily storeString-able?

Yes:

 (HelpTopic title: 'Hello' contents: 'World') storeString

but if you serialize/deserialize you will get many Form
instances since a help topic can have an icon. These are
by default shared in a cache to save space by reusing
the same form. See class HelpIcon. This class can be
extended by your own packages or you provide own icons.

Bye
T.


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