Re: Ada help file indexed by keyword

[Georg Bauhaus <rm.dash-bauhaus@futureapps.de>]

On 21.04.10 14:37, Manuel Collado wrote:

> Do you suggest converting every instance of common words like 'with',
> 'use', 'for', 'while', ... into a link to index entries? :-)

Sort of, although I'd put more power into the hands of programmers looking
for information.  For each word, there will have to be some form of
KWIC, where the 'C' is the part to be well defined. Since you outlined
one possibility, I imagine making a ready-to-use help system "for keywords"
will profit from observing the Google generation's approach to finding
information.

(Step 1) In general, if you want to learn about "for", type "for"
into the search box.  The search box will then suggest what you
are looking for, and take you there.

(Step 2) The universe of text to be indexed by the help system
is restricted to text about the syntactic features of Ada.

(Step 3) The one thing that an IDE would need is a
specialized search box by another name (and slightly different
display) supported by the language parser.  Everything else is
readily available, for example via Netscape Lisp
(a.k.a. Javascript). The latter will give you context help for
free. Therefore,

(a) have an Ada parser look for key words,

(b) on some event (mouse etc.) connected with the keyword, have the
system display a ready made sub-document on top of the other
text. (Code doing this is freely available.)

So yes, a link is enough.