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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: KFMIII or KFMII?
From:       Waldo Bastian <bastian () ens ! ascom ! ch>
Date:       1999-03-01 13:39:47
[Download RAW message or body]

René Beutler wrote:
> Wait, wait. Although kdehelp and konquerror both have in common, that they
> browse docs, their purpose are totally different. At the moment, those apps are
> similar, but this will change, as kdehelp will be extended with full text
> search, a content browser, new HTML tags (eg. URL's for widgets) etc.
> 
> Matthias Elter and myself are working on this, you might want to have a look at
> http://www.linuxbox.com/~khelpcenter.
> 
> Why blowing konquerror? Apart from this, you would have to change tool- and
> menubars for file/help mode, which IMHO would be strange and irritate new users.

[Please read kdebase/konqueror/DESIGN for reference before replying to
this mail]

I think we should aim for seamless integration between kdehelp and
konqueror. Let
me explain what I mean (This is how _I_ think it _should_ be):

kdehelp and konqueror will be seperate applications. Konqueror will be a
"browse
everything" kind of application. If it finds a link or file it can't
browse itself
it will call a helper-application which can show this link or file.
Think
of this as a plug in. The interface for this is currently designed by
David Faure
and Simon Hausmann. At its option the helper-application can also have
stand-alone
mode. 

What would this mean for kdehelp? kdehelp is in the first place a help
browser, it
can show local html-files, man-pages, info-pages and possibly other
help-like info.
When konqueror comes across a link/file which it can't handle itself but
which can 
be handled by kdehelp, an instance of kdehelp should be embedded in
konqueror to 
present the info/help/whatever. This embedding will be based on
KOM/Openparts.

The other way, when kdehelp comes across a link which it can't handle,
it should 
ask konqueror to show the page. If kdehelp was embedded it will be
replaced by the
new page. If kdehelp was running standalone, a new konqueror window will
popup.

The embedded kdehelp will be able to show a limited set of toolbar
entries in the 
toolbar of konqueror and some extra menu-items in the menubar of
konqueror (in 
addition to the standard toolbar/menubar entries of konqueror). If
needed the
stand-alone version of kdehelp can have a broader set of
menu/toolbar-items and
functionality. In that case the embedded version should have an easy way
to let
a stand-alone version come up. 

For kdehelp I don't think that it is necassery to have additional
functionality 
in the stand-alone version. My guess is that it is not too hard to have
all 
functionality in both the stand-alone as well as the embedded version.

Cheers,
Waldo Bastian
bastian@kde.org
-- 
KDE, Making The Future of Computing Available Today       
http://www.kde.org

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