Gnome help reader vs firefox to view html? Man pages, info, other documentation?

[Don Scorgie]

On Thu, 2006-02-23 at 22:09 -0800, Karl Hegbloom wrote:
> I really don't like the Gnome help browser (Breezy;5.10) it's lazy and
> cheap and it's missing important features that would make it a lot more
> useful.  Devhelp has a much better interface.  Can it talk with Beagle?
> Or is that secret information that nobody ever posts to these mailing
> lists?
> 
> It seems to me that somebody who is up to the challenge should write a
> really nice AJAX driven help browser application for Firefox that can
> serve as a replacement for the Gnome help browser, and perhaps that of
> other OSS Desktop Environments as well.
> 
> With AJAX and XUL, I imagine that it can talk to the server side and
> thus facilitate the underworkings of search and browse capabilities with
> retrieval keys based on Dublin Core as well as some intelligent
> full-text search.
> 
> SchoolTool has a great look and feel for a web application, by the way.
> 
> -- 
> Karl Hegbloom <hegbloom at pdx.edu>
> 
> 

As Corey pointed out, the version of yelp in Dapper is much faster.  In
addition, it supports printing and searching, the most requested
features.  It can also be linked against Beagle with a recompile (By
default, it doesn't as beagle isn't part of core ubuntu) - providing a
faster search than the default.

As an aside, instead of suggesting "someone [should write a] ...
replacement for the GNOME help browser", it might have been a little
more useful to 

1) Check the progress made by the current one:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DapperFlight4
lists some of the improvements that have been made (after all, this is a
devel list)

2) Ask for any features that are currently missing (preferably as bug
reports).

OR 3) If you still don't like the help browser, go and start writing a
replacement.  Providing a little code for people to work from will get
you a lot further than just saying "Gee, it'd be nice to get rid of this
thing I don't like.  Someone please go and write a replacement for me".

Don

P.S. I'm sorry if this is a little harsh sounding.  I'm currently giving
up smoking.