Re: Any open source help software tools?

[Lou Quillio <public -at- quillio -dot- com>]

Bruce Byfield wrote:
> Seeing these threads about help software flit through my Inbox, I
> started wondering: Is anyone using an open source help tool? Does such a
> thing even exist?

This whole subject sickens my open-standards heart.

Is there any reason why our apps can't write a web of cross-linked
HTML files somewhere in the user's home directory (I think they call
it "Documents & Settings" in CandyLand) and point Help at its index
file, or context-sensitive Help at specific pages?

Discrete free-text search is the only reason, and desktop search
tools (and the Web itself) fix that.

Why's RoboHelp orphaned and over?  Because the brewers of that
particular Kool-Aid see the end, and they're resigned to it.

What's most absurd are the tech comm segments that'll perpetuate the
CHM hoax after its perpetrators have left the field.  The world
never needed CHM, and tech comms should have been the folks killing
it.  It's gratifying to see an unholy alliance end.

</rant>

LQ

ps.  Nice bait, BB.

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