[dev] wiki as help

[duck at obala.net]

Quoting Eric Jon Rostetter <eric.rostetter at physics.utexas.edu>:

> Quoting duck at obala.net:
>
>> As I remember, time ago we discussed the feature of our “help”  
>> mechanism. Some purposed to drop the help.xml files (are really  
>> outdated) and to use wiki. But Jan objected, because as we cannot  
>> use it off-line.
>
> I agree with Jan, but...
>
>> Of course this can be used to sync offline installations. So we can  
>> drop the help.xml. Or we can create a new renderer to prepare help  
>> files from wiki pages and distribute them with the releases. Even I  
>> think that is better to link help to wiki.horde.org, this should  
>> bring more documentation contributions.
>
> We could create a wiki to maintain the help pages, and a process as
> described to convert the wiki pages to the help.xml files for the
> distributions.  In the resulting help.xml files can be a link to
> the wiki 'for more current/up-to-date help information see ...' or
> some such...
>
>> Any Ideas?
>
> I'm not against keeping the system we have now.  In fact, it has some
> advantages (local customizations are easier, etc).  But if we did as
> above (a wiki, which is extracted to be included in the release), then
> this might be the best of both worlds.
>
> I know of several projects that do a wiki, and then tar-ball the wiki
> as html or text into each distribution.  So this would be just an extension
> of that idea (help files instead of tar balls).  We'd just need an
> automated process to convert the wiki into help.xml files...

I did a basic render and used Turba's help.xml as an example:  
http://bugs.horde.org/ticket/7154. With it, we can manage the help  
content online and update help files in the release process. We can  
even distribute
help as html or text format someone would like to. But I will like to  
see an configuration option to use a local help file or to link to a  
desired wiki.

Duck