Installing Help in the IDE
The files needed from Kylix3
When I finally gave up on Borland and switched to Lazarus, I was dismayed to find that the familiar help system was missing. I have gotten use to just typing in a function / keyword, then hitting Ctrl+F1 to bring up the help to see what the parameters were to be. This will show you how to use the Kylix context sensitive help system with a Linux installation of Lazarus.
Since many of you have been coding in Kylix, you probably already have these files lying around some place. I suspect that the help system from the free version of Kylix may work as well under this outline? These are the files and directories needed from the ${HOME}/kylix/help directory:
bin/ k3clx.hlp k3dbd.cnt k3.hlp
foo k3.cnt k3dbd.fts k3indy.cnt
foo~ k3copts.cnt k3dbd.hlp k3indy.fts
hhintro.txt k3copts.fts k3dbx.cnt k3indy.hlp
hoh.cnt k3copts.hlp k3dbx.fts k3iota.cnt
hoh.fts k3crtl.cnt k3dbx.hlp k3iota.fts
hoh.hlp k3crtl.fts k3derrs.cnt k3iota.hlp
hyperhelp.sh* k3crtl.hlp k3derrs.fts k3new.cnt
k3.als k3ctools.cnt k3derrs.hlp k3new.fts
k3cerrs.cnt k3ctools.fts k3dlr.cnt k3new.hlp
k3cerrs.fts k3ctools.hlp k3dlr.fts k3prog.cnt
k3cerrs.hlp k3cw.cnt k3dlr.hlp k3prog.fts
k3clr.cnt k3cw.fts k3dopts.cnt k3prog.hlp
k3clr.fts k3cw.hlp k3dopts.fts lib/
k3clr.hlp k3dap.cnt k3dopts.hlp
k3clx.cnt k3dap.fts k3.ftg
k3clx.fts k3dap.hlp k3.fts
Most of the above files may not pertain to Lazarus, such as the k3c* files which relate to C++, but they are harmless to keep around.
The bare minimum files needed for the context help are these:
bin/ k3.als k3clx.fts k3.cnt k3.fts lib/
hyperhelp.sh* k3clx.cnt k3clx.hlp k3.ftg k3.hlp
The hyperhelp.sh script
We do need to dress up the default help script provided with Kylix so that it will work as a standalone app under X. Note that the last line of the script sets some missing rendering parameters? Also note the -geometry which positions the window and sets its size.
#!/bin/bash
HHHOME="${HOME}/Lazarus/DelphiHelp"
XPPATH="${HHHOME}/xprinter"
LANG=en_US
LC_ALL=en_US
locale=${LC_ALL:-${LC_CTYPE:-${LANG:-"C"}}}
LD_LIBRARY_PATH+="lib/locale/"${locale}":lib:"
XAPPLRESDIR="app-defaults"
NLSPATH="lib/locale/%L/%N.cat"
export XPPATH HHHOME LANG LC_ALL LD_LIBRARY_PATH XAPPLRESDIR NLSPATH
cd $HHHOME
bin/hyperhelp k3clx.hlp -m AL\($1,3,,main\)\
-s 0 -d 32159 -display :0.0 -geometry 600x500+100+100 -w
my Directory tree
This is where I have placed the Kylix Help file directory. It is under my installation of Lazarus in the user home directory. The hyperhelp.sh script refers to these locations.
/home/tom/Lazarus/DelphiHelp/ |-- bin `-- lib `-- locale |-- de_DE |-- fr_FR |-- ja_JP.SJIS |-- ja_JP.eucJP `-- ja_JP.eucjp
Custom Tool setup in IDE
Finally, setup the new custom tool within Lazarus from then menu 'Tools|Configure custom tools|Add'. Replace '/home/tom/' with your user home directory path. This has to be an absolute path to the hyperhelp.sh script.
In summary
Just place your cursor in the edit window on the word you want to find help for and press Ctrl+F1. The Kylix help will then open up the context sensitive help page for that keyword.