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idlwave: Help with HTML Documentation

 
 4.3.1 Help with HTML Documentation
 ----------------------------------
 
 Help using the HTML documentation is invoked with the built-in Emacs
 command ‘browse-url’, which displays the relevant help topic in a
 browser of your choosing.  Beginning with version 6.2, IDL comes with
 the help browser _IDL Assistant_, which it uses by default for
 displaying online help on all supported platforms.  This browser offers
 topical searches, an index, and is also now the default and recommended
 IDLWAVE help browser.  The variable ‘idlwave-help-use-assistant’
 controls whether this browser is used.  Note that, due to limitations in
 the Assistant, invoking help within IDLWAVE and ‘? topic’ within IDL
 will result in two running copies of Assistant.
 
    Aside from the IDL Assistant, there are many possible browsers to
 choose among, with differing advantages and disadvantages.  The variable
 ‘idlwave-help-browser-function’ controls which browser help is sent to
 (as long as ‘idlwave-help-use-assistant’ is not set).  This function is
 used to set the variable ‘browse-url-browser-function’ locally for
 IDLWAVE help only.  Customize the latter variable to see what choices of
 browsers your system offers.  Certain browsers like ‘w3’ (bundled with
 many versions of Emacs) and ‘w3m’ (<http://emacs-w3m.namazu.org/>) are
 run within Emacs, and use Emacs buffers to display the HTML help.  This
 can be convenient, especially on small displays, and images can even be
 displayed in-line on newer Emacs versions.  However, better formatting
 results are often achieved with external browsers, like Mozilla.
 IDLWAVE assumes any browser function containing "w3" is displayed in a
 local buffer.  If you are using another Emacs-local browser for which
 this is not true, set the variable ‘idlwave-help-browser-is-local’.
 
    With IDL 6.2 or later, it is important to ensure that the variable
 ‘idlwave-system-directory’ is set (SeeCatalogs).  One easy way to
 ensure this is to run the IDL Shell (‘C-c C-s’).  It will be queried for
 this directory, and the results will be cached to file for subsequent
 use.
 
    SeeHTML Help Browser Tips, for more information on selecting and
 configuring a browser for use with IDL’s HTML help system.
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-html-system-help-location ‘help/online_help’
      Relative directory of the system-supplied HTML help directory,
      considered with respect to ‘idlwave-system-directory’.  Relevant
      for IDL 6.2 and greater.  Should not change.
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-html-help-location ‘/usr/local/etc/’
      The directory where the ‘idl_html_help’ HTML directory live.
      Obsolete and ignored for IDL 6.2 and greater
      (‘idlwave-html-system-help-location’ is used instead).
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-help-use-assistant ‘t’
      If set, use the IDL Assistant if possible for online HTML help,
      otherwise use the browser function specified in
      ‘idlwave-help-browser-function’.
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-help-browser-function
      The browser function to use to display IDLWAVE HTML help.  Should
      be one of the functions available for setting
      ‘browse-url-browser-function’, which see.
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-help-browser-is-local
      Is the browser selected in ‘idlwave-help-browser-function’ run in a
      local Emacs buffer or window?  Defaults to ‘t’ if the function
      contains "-w3".
 
  -- User Option: idlwave-help-link-face
      The face for links to IDLWAVE online help.
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