Hi list (and Laz devs),

I'm working on fixing some things in the help system.

1. function TChmHelpViewer.ShowNode(Node: THelpNode; var ErrMsg: string
  ): TShowHelpResult;
in
components\chmhelp\packages\idehelp\lazchmhelp.pas
has
  if Pos('file://', Node.URL) = 1 then
  begin
    Result := PassTheBuck(Node, ErrMsg);
    Exit;
  end;

Is ignoring the results of the PassTheBuck (nice name ;) ) call on purpose or should it be changed to Exit(Result)?

2. My patch in
http://bugs.freepascal.org/view.php?id=26079
seems to work ok: for context-sensitive lhelp is started, hidden, loads .chm files and then is shown once the files are loaded. Then it shows the help for the requested item.

However, after a couple of seconds (which suggests a timeout error in the IPC communication) the IDE starts the Code Browser, looking for the identifier.

Getting a bit tired, so perhaps somebody can tell me where the fallback to showing the code browser is coded...

Thanks,
Reinier

Just above Exit the "Result" of the function is already set in Result so there is no need for the parameter in Exit (it's already set). (Even the ErrMsg is given back via the var-parameter of ShowNode)

(You were probably really tired :))

Thanks, yes, you're right.

Not surprisingly, fiddling with the code did not change my main problem: the Code Browser still pops up even after succesfully showing help.... but enabling the lazarus log did show this:
TIDEHelpManager.ShowHelpForSourcePosition no declaration found, trying keywords ...
TChmHelpViewer.ShowNode Filename="ref.chm"
SearchPath="D:\Docs\Pascal\LazarusHelp"
Found="D:\Docs\Pascal\LazarusHelp\ref.chm"
LHelpControl: WaitForMsgResponse: hit timeout (10) TIDEHelpManager.ShowHelpForSourcePosition "not" is not a FPC keyword, search via code browser ...

which gives me something to work with (after a good night's sleep :) ): I get a timeout message which shouldn't happen so either a response is still not received in time (too early or too late) or not the main reason why I started this patch ;)

Ah well...

Reinier Olislagers wrote

However, after a couple of seconds (which suggests a timeout error in the IPC communication) the IDE starts the Code Browser, looking for the identifier.

Posting for reference:
After a good night's sleep, some logging found this probable location: ide\idehelpmanager.pas
function TIDEHelpManager.ShowHelpForSourcePosition(const Filename: string;

  const CodePos: TPoint; var ErrMsg: string): TShowHelpResult;

which tries to show context-sensitive help, and on failure shows the code browser

Just implemented a fix for this that works for me on FPC trunk x86, Lazarus trunk, Windows.
Menu Help/Help should also show help contents (after starting up lhelp).

Would appreciate people on other platforms to test and tell me if it doesn't work.
Thanks.

Excellent, is this likely to get into 1.26?

Richard

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Please don't top-post when others bottom-post, thanks.

I would first like to see this tested out well across a range of machines as the lhelp simpleIPC code seems to be timing-sensitive, so no, I don't think so.

Thanks.