Add help directory setting to help command

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Description From Jonathan Voigt 2006-02-07 13:09:23 (-) [reply]
rmarinie:
Second, I propose adding the ability to register additional help
directories with the help command.  For example, QuickLink might have
its own help dir, and we can add that to the "help path" that gets
searched when the help command is used.  The standard help directory
will always be in the help path, but some applications may add
additional directories with something like "help --append-dir
myapp/help".  Furthermore, the help command will know which command help
files are in the standard directory and which aren't, so it can mark the
application-specific commands with an * (or other distinguishing mark)
when the available commands are listed, so someone can see at a glance
what new commands are available for this application.

voigtjr:
As for additional help directories, I can see that being no problem but I'm 
not
sure it is necessary.  The commands shouldn't overlap, so putting all the 
help
in that one directory (and maybe renaming it Help/ instead of CLIHelp) I 
think
is the best idea, although I could be talked out of that I think.

rmarinie:
The main reason for having separate help directories is so
application-specific help is only listed when running those
applications.  If we put all of the help in one directory, it would be
difficult to tell which commands are really available for the current
application -- I would get QuickLink's commands listed when running the
debugger (unless we start adding special tags to the beginning of files
to say what applications they are for, which might be ok but sounds more
complex/bug prone).

Also, it is possible that an application would override a standard
command and thus have a special help file for it (but with the same name
as the original command).  I don't think it's a good idea for an
application to do this (and I don't think any currently do), but it is
technically possible.
------- Comment #1 From Jonathan Voigt 2006-02-08 09:19:48 (-) [reply] ----

---
laird:
Nice idea, but let's put it off for the next release....

Original issue reported on code.google.com by voigtjr@gmail.com on 23 Jul 2009 at 4:12

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Original comment by voigtjr@gmail.com on 23 Jul 2009 at 5:29

• Added labels: Imported-Bugzilla

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The help system is going to be using the contents of 
http://code.google.com/p/soar/wiki/CommandLineInterface so this is no longer an 
issue. If we want additional topics that are not commands to be added to help, 
simply 
add them to that page.

Original comment by voigtjr@gmail.com on 23 Feb 2010 at 5:25

• Changed state: WontFix