[fpc-pascal] OS/2 INF help support

[Graeme Geldenhuys]

Tomas Hajny het geskryf:
> remembered it wrongly. I'm happy to be proven wrong.

http://owbuilder.malakovi.cz/snapshot/

I downloaded the Linux IPF compiler from here... I don't know how recent
that copy is though.


> Simple pictures are certainly no problem (although I believe that the INF
> format only supports BMP files - no JPG, no GIF or PNG, etc.). However, I
> was more referring to more advanced formatting possibilities; yet again,
> this may or may not be important depending on your needs and expectations.

I do not understand "advanced formatting possibilities"? INF supports
only BMP and MET (meta graphics). INF also supports hyperlinks via text
and graphics. For the graphics you can also support segmented graphic
links -- one image containing various links to different help topics or
other help files etc... Similar thing to HTML's image map support.

http://tinyurl.com/nvjvdz

 or

http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/ej6c2b00/2.3.2.2.3?SHELF=&DT=19941104154554


What I am doing at the moment is reviewing various help formats so I can
implement something that works for fpGUI based applications. I do not
limit myself to the exact feature list of previous help formats. The INF
is a case in point. If I want to support png images in INF, I will add
such support in the viewer and compiler. Obviously, then I will change
the help file extension as no to confuse other users thinking the INF I
use is the same format as the INF used in OS/2.

I'm collecting a feature list for application help. Good compression,
speed, size, easy help authoring etc... Obviously I start off with the
stock help formats and add my personal needs from there - if the stock
help format doesn't support what I want.

Regards,
  - Graeme -

-- 
fpGUI Toolkit - a cross-platform GUI toolkit using Free Pascal
http://opensoft.homeip.net/fpgui/