[Moin-user] Wiki as CHM file

[Gisbert Amm]

> Hi, I'd like to do a documentation project for a given topic 
> (the language
> Lua) and I was thinking that the whole thing could be edited 
> and compiled
> using Moin.
> 
> I was thinking I could use a modified version of 
> scripts/moin_dump.py to
> create a static version of the wiki which I could then 
> compile using the MS
> help compiler.
> 
> i.e.
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/htmlhelp/ht
ml/vsconwhtsdll.asp

> This would generate a CHM file of the wiki. I haven't really generated CHM
> files before so this is a little experimental.

It's a nice idea; once you got it running I'd like to try it out, too.

If you're familiar with XSLT, the HTMLHelp Stylesheets of the DocBook
project probably can give you some advices to the structure details of the
nesseccary files (http://docbook.sourceforge.net/projects/xsl/). There is
also a stylesheet for JavaHelp (see below).

Another approach would be to create a simple CHM file with the free MS HTML
Help Workshop (hhw.exe) and investigate the generated files.

> Has anybody tried anything like this, or does anyone have a better idea
for
> generating such documentation? Is there a solution (cross plaform) which
is
> better than CHM?

You might have a look at JavaHelp (http://java.sun.com/products/javahelp/).
It's similar to MS HTMLHelp (three-pane window, you need a viewer, you can
embed it in applications and so on), but because of Java it's fully platform
independend.

The generation process is similar, too: You have to create some textfiles (a
projectfile and a toc are mandatory; an index is optional); the projectfile
includes entries for all your HTML files and images. Then - if I remember
correctly - you run it through some JAR (the couterpart to hhc.exe) and get
a file you can display with the helpsetviewer.

Regards
Gisbert Amm