Re: DOCBOOK: DocBook to WinHelp

[Kirk Zurell <kirk@bytecraft.com>]

I am starting to do just this. My process involves generating RTF with a
heavily-customized print stylesheet, then running the RTF through a Perl
filter (lots of s///g; rules).

No, I will not give out the files because it is wobbly at best. But it
may be easier to do it yourself:

In your print stylesheet customization, cause your (element sectn) DSSSL
script to search for (say) index entries within the section. Output a
"footnote" in plain text ("{K foo:bar;blat:yoikes}"). In the RTF, braces
are escaped as "\{" and "\}" (or something like that). In the Perl
filter, execute

s/\\{K ([^\\]*)\\}/K{\\footnote K $1}/g;

to "unencapsulate" them. Then compile with Winhelp compiler.

I learned this trick from a long-ago package called "helpfile.dtd". It
still might be available from the Cover pages. It had a simpler DTD and
a simple Perl script.

It is a pitiful solution, but less so than Winhelp authoring tools.

I'm reading the Jade source to learn how to create a "footnote" flow
object (or at least how to improve the currently output RTF words, like
bookmarks _around_ the text of heading text, not before them). But
that's C++, so, pray for me.


Kirk Zurell
Byte Craft Limited.

Bernd Kreimeier wrote:
> 
> DocBook is under consideration for a cross platform
> project over here. The Win32 group wants to generate
> WinHelp files. I have found no documentation or mention
> whatsoever with respect to this, is it safe to conclude
> that this is not supported, and not available? Any
> workarounds?
> 
>                                          b.