[fpc-pascal] OS/2 INF help support

[Michael Van Canneyt]

On Tue, 8 Sep 2009, Graeme Geldenhuys wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I know that the FP IDE (text mode) has support for reading OS/2 INF help
> files. This is pretty cool and it works with just about any INF file I
> threw at it. :-)
>
> I read my old VisualAge for C++ for OS/2 docs and it says that to
> generate a INF you need to create the help markup (similar to HTML
> apparently) in the IFP file and then compile it with the IBM IPFC help
> compiler.
>
> Does anybody know if there is an open-source IPFC help compiler? One
> implemented in Object Pascal maybe?
>
> I'm been doing some reading on various help file format - to be used in
> my applications and possible Lazarus IDE. From my OS/2 2.1 and OS/2 Warp
> days I remember the INF help was very impressive. Searching was
> lightning quick even on old hardware and INF files a few megabytes in
> size.  Apparently this is due to the very efficient INF help format.
>
> Anyway, I want to try and implement a GUI version of the INF Help Viewer
> code available in the FP IDE. But ultimately, I would like to compile my
> own help as well, under Linux and Windows. Would this be possible?

Standard answer I give to my boss in such cases:
"Given time and money, anything is possible"

:-)

I suppose you'd need the INF specs in order to make a compiler for it.

Michael.