help about configuration

[Gediminas Paulauskas <menesis delfi lt>]

On 20 Jun 2001 15:41:10 -0400, Jonathan Blandford wrote:
> I think a better plan is something like a help application with a bunch
> of User FAQs that show the user how to do things/take them to the actual
> dialog.

Windows Help has had such a feature from 95 times I think. There is a
Start->HElp->Troubleshooting menuitem, which asks questions about what's
wrong and contains explanation along with little buttons or links.
Clicking on them opens a dialog or control panel item (Windows control
panel does not have it's own shell). Instructions say click here and
there, type something etc. Then asks has it worked?

It should be quite easy to implement. All we need is interactive help
pages and a way to open dialogs, switch to particular tabs, launch apps.

Help page can contain a simple link <a
href="exec://keyboard-properties-capplet">

The problem is that preferences dialogs are created by apps, and help is
viewed with external application. If prefs. dialogs were external
resources, they can be opened by other apps. AFAIK PonG does exactly
what I want: application just calls

pong_add_directory ("/usr/share/foo");
pong_run_simple_dialog ("foo.pong");


to create a dialog, and listens for changes via gconf.

So help application could easily do the same. How does such fragment of
doc look:

To change you signature, open
<a href="pong:///usr/share/foo/foo.pong#identity">
identity tab in foo options</a> and click on "Edit..." button.

just my 0.03 Lt

--
Gediminas Paulauskas
Kaunas, Lithuania