[Gambas-user] Help on Help? IDE operation experience

[Benoît Minisini]

Le 22/05/2021 à 05:31, John Anderson a écrit :
> Maybe a somewhat noob experience here and maybe I missed something -  
> but maybe these could be future upgrades to think about - On Master 
> Gambas 3.16.90 and stable 3.16.0 running on Linux Mint 20.1 here is what 
> I'm running into.  Please steer me the right direction if I've missed 
> something obvious:
> 
> 1)  I know if I'm typing a keyword in the IDE, say I'm typing "Struct" I 
> do get a small popup help box as an aid.  Nice!.  BUT If I go to help 
> browser, is there a way to 'search for' a keyword?  

No, but if you login to the Gambas wiki, there is a search box.

> I'm not seeing how 
> that's done.  In VB6 IDE you could highlight a keyword, hit F1 and wind 
> up on that topic in help. That was a good feature.  Is there a way to 
> actually -search- help in this system?

You can hit F2 directly on a keyword, without selecting it, to get the 
same result.

> 
> For instance I was looking in the keyword list for CDouble or CDbl, and 
> it took a while to realize it is CFloat in Gambas...for some reason.  A 
> way to search for the word "double" might have helped there.
> 
> 2) On the help browser there is a button 
> "https:\\gambas.sourceforge.net".  Is that URL changeable? 

No.

> Why not 
> "gambaswiki" or "GambasOne" forum for instance, or even search mailing 
> list function?  - there is Gambas information scattered in a lot of 
> places.

It's just a random button. The help webview is a embedded webkit 
browser, but you should better use a true browser if you want to search 
for Gambas help.

 > It would be cool if there was a consolidation of Gambas
 > information in one place.

The wiki is the place for that. There is a page that should references 
all such places ("Mailing-list & forums").

But for sure it could have a better presentation.

> 
> 3) I notice once I click that URL button in the help browser, the help 
> browser gets stuck on that page for that IDE session...apparently.  I 
> can't go back to regular help keyword list.  At least that's what's 
> happening here.  Probably operator error?

You have to click on the "home" button to go back to the wiki home page.

> 
> 4) I have "Firefox" checked as the defualt browser, but I guess the Help 
> button always uses the help browser?  I'm guessing so.

Yes, it's a WebView control.

> 
> 5)  Is there any more help documentation on "Get Started with Web Part 
> 2"  That topic just sort of trails off to nothing.  I'd help write that 
> once I knew what it was supposed to say <grin>.

I didn't write the first page, so I don't know why there is no second 
page. What do you want to know that it not in that first page?

-- 
Benoît Minisini