[ros-dev] Implementing a help system

[Karim Liman-Tinguiri]

Hello,

I've recently joined the ReactOS project (1) where I intend to work as
a coder primarily. After downloading the LiveCD and trying it out, I
found out it lacks (amongst many) a help system. I believe it should
be added amongst the urgent TO-DOs checklist now that the OS runs,
provides a minimal GUI, and is stable. Built-in user assistance is
essential since the React Operating System is intended for the large
audience; not only for hackers.

Therefore I am wondering if there is a current project started to code
one. If not, I plan to code an open-source version of the winhlp32.exe
file located in the system folder able to open and show windows .hlp
files. The goal is to have a winhlp32.exe that runs and behaves
exactly like (or very close to) that of the Microsoft copyrighted
winhlp32.exe. It should therefore be able to serve existing windows
apps with a help server without any modification to the program. I've
verified the dependencies of winhlp32.exe; all of them have already
been implemented in ReactOS, so it should not be a big deal to code it
from scratch. Despite the fact that the .hlp file format isn't
officially documented, it has already been reverse engineered and its
documentation can be found on the web (2). However, if there already
is a help support project up and running, I intend to join it.

Besides, as soon as this is ready (why not before ?), I advise we
convert all documentation on the reactos.com's library (and all
further documentation) to the DocBook (SGML) format: it has the
advantage of being easily converted on-the-fly to pdf, html,
post-script and many others. A tool chain to convert it to .hlp will
however have to be created (meanwhile we can use the standard tools
for compiling .hlp files).

(1) I'm referring to the developer mailing list
(2) http://www.geocities.com/mwinterhoff/helpfile.htm