Second Life Forums Archive - test build of wiki as CHM

Jake Cellardoor

CHM builder

Join date: 27 Mar 2003

Posts: 528

11-07-2004 01:07

The attached ZIP file contains a compiled HTMLHelp file (a CHM file) containing the static wiki snapshot posted by Ezhar Fairlight in the thread here. The CHM also contains the User's Guide written by the Lindens.

This is just a preliminary test; there are known issues with the file, but I'm posting it to get feedback. Any comments are welcome, but I'm primarily wondering what people would like to see in the Contents pane. I've tried to adapt the wiki to the table of contents I had set up for earlier versions of the CHM, but it's not a perfect fit. For example, ideally the Contents pane would list all the library functions in distinct categories, while the wiki leaves some functions uncategorized. And of course, the wiki has many topics besides the library functions and event handlers. Not every topic needs to have an entry in the table of contents, and given the wiki HomePage and PageIndex, how much need is there for the Contents pane at all?

Anyway, give it a try and see what you think.

Mike Zidane

Registered User

Join date: 10 Apr 2004

Posts: 255

11-07-2004 07:56

Ahhhh, yer beautiful.

You could go crazy, but the wiki already has an easy to navigate functions page, and the linden lab docs.... well, those are the linden lab docs. They need a staff person to take care of that stuff.

If you wanna do some good, save your energy for keepin' it current. I think you'll get a higher return on your investment that way.

The contents seem adequate at any rate.

Thank you very much for puttin' this together for us.

Shack Dougall

self become: Object new

Join date: 9 Aug 2004

Posts: 1,028

11-08-2004 05:31

awesome! The thing I looked for was the hyperlink from llMoveToTarget to the discussions of local vs global coordinates. It's there. And searching for 'global' gets you a link for global coordinates.

Conclusion: this is incredibly useful "as is". Thanks!

_____________________

Prim Composer for 3dsMax
-- complete offline builder for prims and sculpties in 3ds Max
http://liferain.com/downloads/primcomposer/

Hierarchical Prim Archive (HPA)
-- HPA is is a fully-documented, platform-independent specification for storing and transferring builds between Second Life-compatible platforms and tools.
https://liferain.com/projects/hpa

Eggy Lippmann

Wiktator

Join date: 1 May 2003

Posts: 7,939

11-08-2004 05:39

w00t!
Go Jake

_____________________

Help us document Second Life history at http://slhistory.org!

Samhain Broom

Registered User

Join date: 1 Aug 2004

Posts: 298

11-08-2004 07:18

WTG Jake, I'm going to keep that one as a backup for sure. Lots of good stuff in there!

_____________________

rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts

Ezhar Fairlight

professional slacker

Join date: 30 Jun 2003

Posts: 310

11-08-2004 08:35

Nice. Thanks!

_____________________

My Second Life stuff

Francis Chung

This sentence no verb.

Join date: 22 Sep 2003

Posts: 918

11-08-2004 15:32

Mwhee

YayW00tJake!

Kthxbye

_____________________

--
~If you lived here, you would be home by now~

Jake Cellardoor

CHM builder

Join date: 27 Mar 2003

Posts: 528

11-09-2004 00:30

Glad folks are finding it useful. As long as I can get snapshots of the wiki regularly (and the topic filenames remain the same), it should be easy to keep the CHM up-to-date.

Samhain Broom

Registered User

Join date: 1 Aug 2004

Posts: 298

11-09-2004 07:37

I have a question for you Jake, what do you use to compare the most previous set of data with the current to identify things you need to update in the CHM?

Do you use a UNIX utility like "diff" or "sdiff" or do you have a PERL or Python script to do that?

I'm just curious.

_____________________

rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts

Jake Cellardoor

CHM builder

Join date: 27 Mar 2003

Posts: 528

11-09-2004 11:09

From: Samhain Broom

I have a question for you Jake, what do you use to compare the most previous set of data with the current to identify things you need to update in the CHM?

Well, I've only built the wiki into a CHM once. Assuming that subsequent snapshots of the wiki use the same filenames, I should be able to rebuild the entire set of files without doing a "diff."

For past versions of the CHM, when I was maintaining my own set of source files, I used windiff to identify changes in the Linden scripting reference. (The Lindens were using an authoring tool that generated different numbers for the anchor tags each time, so to eliminate the diff noise they created, I just did a regular-expression search-and-replace from within Microsoft Developer Studio.)

Samhain Broom

Registered User

Join date: 1 Aug 2004

Posts: 298

11-09-2004 12:46

Ah thanks!

_____________________

rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts

Jake Cellardoor

CHM builder

Join date: 27 Mar 2003

Posts: 528

11-13-2004 11:20

Bump.

Garoad Kuroda

Prophet of Muppetry

Join date: 5 Sep 2003

Posts: 2,989

02-20-2006 08:07

Grrrrrr this should be a stickypost..... !

_____________________

BTW

WTF is C3PO supposed to be USEFUL for anyway, besides whining? Stupid piece of scrap metal would be more useful recycled as a toaster. But even that would suck, because who would want to listen to a whining wussy toaster? Is he gold plated? If that's the case he should just be melted down into gold ingots. Help the economy some, and stop being so damn useless you stupid bucket of bolts! R2 is 1,000 times more useful than your tin man ass, and he's shaped like a salt and pepper shaker FFS!

Lex Neva

wears dorky glasses

Join date: 27 Nov 2004

Posts: 1,361

02-20-2006 09:20

An idea just hit me. Would it be possible to hack up the built-in and mostly-useless Second Life client help files to include the LSL reference? Those files seem to be very simple HTML files... I'm not sure whether we get to use anything more than the basic links and bold/underline/italics (if that), because if there was full HTML support, LL wouldn't have made a big deal about how they built an internal SL client with an embedded windowed browser. Still, if you could strip the wiki down to "basic" HTML that could be included into the built-in help window, that'd be truly awesome. Then, I wouldn't have to leave fullscreen mode to check the wiki.

Eggy Lippmann

Wiktator

Join date: 1 May 2003

Posts: 7,939

02-20-2006 10:18

I somehow get the feeling that the wiki would be bigger than the SL viewer

Downloading it with every release would be sorta useless IMHO.

_____________________

Help us document Second Life history at http://slhistory.org!

Lex Neva

wears dorky glasses

Join date: 27 Nov 2004

Posts: 1,361

02-21-2006 09:40

Sigh, I suppose you're right. Ah well, I'll wait for HTML on a prim.

test build of wiki as CHM
Jake Cellardoor CHM builder Join date: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 528	11-07-2004 01:07 The attached ZIP file contains a compiled HTMLHelp file (a CHM file) containing the static wiki snapshot posted by Ezhar Fairlight in the thread here. The CHM also contains the User's Guide written by the Lindens. This is just a preliminary test; there are known issues with the file, but I'm posting it to get feedback. Any comments are welcome, but I'm primarily wondering what people would like to see in the Contents pane. I've tried to adapt the wiki to the table of contents I had set up for earlier versions of the CHM, but it's not a perfect fit. For example, ideally the Contents pane would list all the library functions in distinct categories, while the wiki leaves some functions uncategorized. And of course, the wiki has many topics besides the library functions and event handlers. Not every topic needs to have an entry in the table of contents, and given the wiki HomePage and PageIndex, how much need is there for the Contents pane at all? Anyway, give it a try and see what you think.
Mike Zidane Registered User Join date: 10 Apr 2004 Posts: 255	11-07-2004 07:56 Ahhhh, yer beautiful. You could go crazy, but the wiki already has an easy to navigate functions page, and the linden lab docs.... well, those are the linden lab docs. They need a staff person to take care of that stuff. If you wanna do some good, save your energy for keepin' it current. I think you'll get a higher return on your investment that way. The contents seem adequate at any rate. Thank you very much for puttin' this together for us.
Shack Dougall self become: Object new Join date: 9 Aug 2004 Posts: 1,028	11-08-2004 05:31 awesome! The thing I looked for was the hyperlink from llMoveToTarget to the discussions of local vs global coordinates. It's there. And searching for 'global' gets you a link for global coordinates. Conclusion: this is incredibly useful "as is". Thanks! _____________________ Prim Composer for 3dsMax -- complete offline builder for prims and sculpties in 3ds Max http://liferain.com/downloads/primcomposer/ Hierarchical Prim Archive (HPA) -- HPA is is a fully-documented, platform-independent specification for storing and transferring builds between Second Life-compatible platforms and tools. https://liferain.com/projects/hpa
Eggy Lippmann Wiktator Join date: 1 May 2003 Posts: 7,939	11-08-2004 05:39 w00t! Go Jake _____________________ Help us document Second Life history at http://slhistory.org!
Samhain Broom Registered User Join date: 1 Aug 2004 Posts: 298	11-08-2004 07:18 WTG Jake, I'm going to keep that one as a backup for sure. Lots of good stuff in there! _____________________ rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts
Ezhar Fairlight professional slacker Join date: 30 Jun 2003 Posts: 310	11-08-2004 08:35 Nice. Thanks! _____________________ My Second Life stuff
Francis Chung This sentence no verb. Join date: 22 Sep 2003 Posts: 918	11-08-2004 15:32 Mwhee YayW00tJake! Kthxbye _____________________ -- ~If you lived here, you would be home by now~
Jake Cellardoor CHM builder Join date: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 528	11-09-2004 00:30 Glad folks are finding it useful. As long as I can get snapshots of the wiki regularly (and the topic filenames remain the same), it should be easy to keep the CHM up-to-date.
Samhain Broom Registered User Join date: 1 Aug 2004 Posts: 298	11-09-2004 07:37 I have a question for you Jake, what do you use to compare the most previous set of data with the current to identify things you need to update in the CHM? Do you use a UNIX utility like "diff" or "sdiff" or do you have a PERL or Python script to do that? I'm just curious. _____________________ rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts
Jake Cellardoor CHM builder Join date: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 528	11-09-2004 11:09 From: Samhain Broom I have a question for you Jake, what do you use to compare the most previous set of data with the current to identify things you need to update in the CHM? Well, I've only built the wiki into a CHM once. Assuming that subsequent snapshots of the wiki use the same filenames, I should be able to rebuild the entire set of files without doing a "diff." For past versions of the CHM, when I was maintaining my own set of source files, I used windiff to identify changes in the Linden scripting reference. (The Lindens were using an authoring tool that generated different numbers for the anchor tags each time, so to eliminate the diff noise they created, I just did a regular-expression search-and-replace from within Microsoft Developer Studio.)
Samhain Broom Registered User Join date: 1 Aug 2004 Posts: 298	11-09-2004 12:46 Ah thanks! _____________________ rm -rf /bin/ladden #beware of geeks bearing grifts
Jake Cellardoor CHM builder Join date: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 528	11-13-2004 11:20 Bump.
Garoad Kuroda Prophet of Muppetry Join date: 5 Sep 2003 Posts: 2,989	02-20-2006 08:07 Grrrrrr this should be a stickypost..... ! _____________________ BTW WTF is C3PO supposed to be USEFUL for anyway, besides whining? Stupid piece of scrap metal would be more useful recycled as a toaster. But even that would suck, because who would want to listen to a whining wussy toaster? Is he gold plated? If that's the case he should just be melted down into gold ingots. Help the economy some, and stop being so damn useless you stupid bucket of bolts! R2 is 1,000 times more useful than your tin man ass, and he's shaped like a salt and pepper shaker FFS!
Lex Neva wears dorky glasses Join date: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 1,361	02-20-2006 09:20 An idea just hit me. Would it be possible to hack up the built-in and mostly-useless Second Life client help files to include the LSL reference? Those files seem to be very simple HTML files... I'm not sure whether we get to use anything more than the basic links and bold/underline/italics (if that), because if there was full HTML support, LL wouldn't have made a big deal about how they built an internal SL client with an embedded windowed browser. Still, if you could strip the wiki down to "basic" HTML that could be included into the built-in help window, that'd be truly awesome. Then, I wouldn't have to leave fullscreen mode to check the wiki.
Eggy Lippmann Wiktator Join date: 1 May 2003 Posts: 7,939	02-20-2006 10:18 I somehow get the feeling that the wiki would be bigger than the SL viewer Downloading it with every release would be sorta useless IMHO. _____________________ Help us document Second Life history at http://slhistory.org!
Lex Neva wears dorky glasses Join date: 27 Nov 2004 Posts: 1,361	02-21-2006 09:40 Sigh, I suppose you're right. Ah well, I'll wait for HTML on a prim.

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test build of wiki as CHM