[DOCS] PostgreSQL 8.0.0 documentation for the MacOS X Help Viewer

[Georges Martin]

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I've packaged the PostgreSQL 8.0.0 documentation for the MacOS X Help Viewer[1].

It's downloadable at:




== Installation ==

1. uncompress the zip file;
2. drop the PostgreSQL 8.0.0 Documentation.help file into the
/Library/Documentation/Help folder.

Open the file by double-clicking it.

You can also access it from the Finder: 

1. select Mac Help from the Help menu;
2. select PostgreSQL 8.0.0 Documentation from the Library menu.


== To do ==

This is a (0.1 !) manual packaging and some pieces are missing right now:

- - the Help Viewer index;
- - the list of figures, tables and examples pages;
- - the Finder icon.

One detail: the .help bundle extension is normally reserved for Apple use... [2]


As the PostgreSQL documentation source is written using DocBook[3], the best way
to get it packaged for the Apple Help Viewer would be to:

1. create a "DocBook to Apple Help" XSLT stylesheet for the "Modular DocBook
HTML Stylesheet" [4][5];
2. extend the pgsql-doc SGML Makefile for Apple Help output [6];
3. and submit all of this to the pgsql-doc mailing list [7] for inclusion in the
PostgreSQL source...

Plus... a lot of free/open source software documentation is written using
DocBook, so that would help porting them to MacOS X.


So, if you have any experience in DocBook, XSLT and/or Apple Help authoring,
please be welcome[8]... :-)


Georges Martin, 
February 2005


- --
[1]

[2]

[3] 
[4] 
[5] there's already a htmlhelp stylesheet for Windows:

[6] 
[7] 
[8] on the pgsql-doc, docbook-apps
() and/or apple-help-authoring
() mailing lists
?

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Re: [DOCS] PostgreSQL 8.0.0 documentation for the MacOS X Help Viewer

[John DeSoi]

Hi Georges,
I looked into doing this for pgEdit on the Mac, but I kept having  
stupid little problems on the Mac getting the help viewer to work right  
when interacting with my application. The main reason to do this over  
just using the plain HTML version is to get the indexing. With the new  
indexing features coming soon in 10.4, I'm not sure there will be much  
advantage.

I'm not trying to discourage you in any way from doing this, just  
venting a bit that I have had problems every time I have tried to  
integrate Apple Help in an application. Apple even wrote a separate  
help viewer for XCode. It is much better for technical documentation;  
hopefully it will eventually show up in Apple Help.

On Feb 5, 2005, at 9:21 AM, Georges Martin wrote:
As the PostgreSQL documentation source is written using DocBook[3],  
the best way
to get it packaged for the Apple Help Viewer would be to:

1. create a "DocBook to Apple Help" XSLT stylesheet for the "Modular  
DocBook
HTML Stylesheet" [4][5];
I think PostgreSQL uses DocBook SGML/DSSSL style sheets and not the  
XML/XSL variant. DSSSL is a Lisp-like syntax (which is *much* better in  
my opinion :) instead of XML. Unfortunately, all new development is  
moving forward on the XML side so this reduces the motivation for  
spending a great deal of time learning DSSSL.

http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/documentation/reference/html/ 
ch04.html#AEN4448

John DeSoi, Ph.D.
http://pgedit.com/
Power Tools for PostgreSQL
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