XFHELP(1)

NAME
xfhelp - interactive Tk help program

SYNOPSIS
xfhelp [xfhelp options]

xfhelp options:

    [-helppath <pathnames>] [-xfBindPath <filename>] [-xfColorFile <filename>] [-xfCursorFile <filename>] [-xfFontFile <filename>] [-xfLoading] [-xfLoadPath <pathname>] [-xfModelColor] [-xfModelMono] [-xfNoLoading] [-xfStartup <filename>] [topic]

DESCRIPTION

XFhelp is a general help program based upon Tcl/Tk. Different programs can use this program to provide help for themselves. The user can browse through the help pages, specify book marks, append notes etc.. Once xfhelp is started, all additional calls of xfhelp use the existing xfhelp, and just change the currently displayed contents. This program is part of the XF distribution, and is used to provide help for the user.

The menubutton (File) only contains a quit button. The menubutton (Groups) allows to jump directly between the help pages for the different programs. The upper left list contains the help pages at the current level. A help page is displayed by clicking on the list item. The upper right list contains the book marks. Below the two lists, the currently selected help page is displayed. This help page contains the name of the topic, the title, the list of keywords, and the help text itself. The displayed help depends on the radiobuttons under the left listbox. It is possible to display Help pages, Hint pages, user writeable Note pages, Manual pages and a special Help page.

A book mark can be inserted by selecting the item in the left list, and pressing the button (Insert mark). To delete a book mark, the book mark is selected, and the button (Delete mark) is pressed. To jump to the book mark,double click the list item, or select the (Goto mark) button.

HELP PAGES
The help pages can be distributed over different directory trees. This allows storing global help information in a global directory, while the user notes are stored in a local directory. New subtopics are created by creating a directory. New help pages can be added by creating a file with a .H extension in the help directory. Besides the main Help pages, additional help files can be created. They have the same name, but a different extension.

Hints have the extension .I, and notes have the extension ending with a .S. Special help files allow calling external programs, like ghostscript. To display a postscript file, the Tcl command DisplayPostscript is called. This is a built-in that checks if there exists an environment variable named XF_HELP_PS_CMD. If this variable exists, this is the command that is executed, with the file name as parameter. Otherwise, ghostscript is started. The variable 'runPath' contains the absolute path name of the help page, and should precede the filename that is passed on to the command.

Help pages can start with two special information lines. One line can begin with '###Title '. This is the title for this help page. The second line can begin with this help page. The following text is the help text that is displayed in the help area.

OPTIONS

The following options can be controlled from the command line.

-helppath pathnames
    This option specifies a : separated list of pathnames. Each pathname can contain help pages.

-xfBindFile filename
    This option specifies a file containing class bindings that implement a default behavior of all widgets.

-xfColorFile filename
    This option specifies a file containing a list of all known colors. This file is automatically created when XF is installed, so please set this variable to the location of the Colors file of the installed XF (usually in the directory ./lib inside the XF distribution).

-xfCursorFile filename
    This option specifies a file containing a list of all known cursors. This file is automatically created when XF is installed, so please set this variable to the location of the Cursors file of the installed XF (usually in the directory ./lib inside the XF distribution).

-xfFontFile filename
    This option specifies a file containing a list of all known fonts. This file is automatically created when XF is installed, so please set this variable to the location of the Fonts file of the installed XF (usually in the directory ./lib inside the XF distribution).

-xfLoading
    This option specifies that the program reports the source filenames that it loads. This is useful when the program automatically accesses archives in the development phase.

-xfLoadPath pathname
    This option specifies a list of pathnames (separated by ":") where the Tcl source files can be found. In order to find the Tcl source files they must be stored in one of these directories.

-xfModelColor
    This option starts the application in color mode.

-xfModelMono
    This option starts the application in monochrome mode.

-xfNoLoading
    This option specifies that the program does not report the source filenames that it loads.

-xfStartup filename
    This option specifies a file containing additional Tcl/Tk code that is loaded at startup.

topic
    This specifies the topic to display. The topic is represented as as a / separated list. The topic is the filename of the help page.

ENVIRONMENT

DISPLAY
    The default display to be used.

XF_HELP_DIR
    This variable sets the help directory to the given value. This directory contains the help pages for the help system.

XF_HELP_PS_CMD
    This variable contains a command that gets one parameter, and displays this postscript file. If this variable is not specified ghostview is used.

XF_LOAD_PATH
    This variable specifies a list of pathnames (separated by ":") where the Tcl source files can be found. In order to find the Tcl source files they must be stored in one of these directories.

BUGS

•   Surely there are many bugs.

SEE ALSO

Tcl(3), Tk-manuals(3), XF-documentation

AUTHOR

Sven Delmas
TU Berlin, Germany
garfield@cs.tu-berlin.de