Hi *,

I've written up a proposal to stop lhelp from flickering (e.g. when loading multiple chm files on start) and close it when the IDE is closed.

See bug:
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=24743

Comments/suggestions welcome.

Thanks,
Reinier

Two questions if I may. First, what happens if two copies of the IDE are open? Are there two separate lhelp instances, and do they track correctly?

Second, when lhelp is invoked by F1 (or direct equivalent), could .chm files be loaded in order of relevance so as to get /something/ useful visible ASAP?

Of course, that's why I posted this...

First, what happens if two copies of the IDE are open? Are there two separate lhelp instances, and do they track correctly?

Good point. I've been thinking about that - what about this:
* The IDE passes an --ipcname starting with lhelp then an (e.g.; depends on any --ipcname length limits) 4 character random identifier so multiple IDE/lhelp sets does not interfere with communication.

Second, when lhelp is invoked by F1 (or direct equivalent), could .chm files be loaded in order of relevance so as to get /something/ useful visible ASAP?

I don't think so. It seems lhelp is single-threaded or at least synchronous. I wouldn't think this is a big problem though - it takes a couple of seconds on my pc to load all files; perhaps the proposed --hide argument will let lhelp shave off some time as it doesn't need to update its GUI while loading.

2013/7/16 Reinier Olislagers

Instead of the random identifier it could pass the PID of the current process.

Vincent
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Good idea, thanks.