15 August 2009

Django 1.1 help file CHM version

This is a funny story.

I happen to think Microsoft's proprietary CHM format is lovely. So I went looking for a CHM version of docs for Django, and google found it for me on this blog. I duly downloaded it, tried to to open it and... it wouldn't display. I could only see the TOC, but not the actual documents. I thought this might be a corrupted version, and it was for an alpha release of Django anyway, so I though I'd compile a version myself. After all, these docs are built with Sphinx, which apparently can generate all sorts of formats...

So here's the procedure to compile django's docs:

1. download and install Sphinx.

   Easy_install Sphinx

   was all I needed. Hurrah for Python.
2. Run Sphinx to generate the initial files:

   cd Django-1.1/docs
   mkdir _build/html
   %PYTHONDIR%\scripts\sphinx-build.exe -b htmlhelp -d _build\doctrees . _build\html
   

3. Download and install Htmlhelp.exe from the Microsoft site. This will give you the HTML Help Workshop.
4. launch the workshop, File -> Compile..., select the file Djangodoc.hhc which should now be in _build/html, and this will produce the chm.
5. ...??? Profit!

... Then I found out the reason that downloaded CHM didn't work was a stupid patch from Microsoft. Ouch.

Anyway, if you need it, here's the file: Djangodocs 1.1 in CHM format. If it doesn't work, make sure you follow this suggested procedure, and save yourself some time...

Labels: chm, django, GeekDiary

posted by GiacomoL @ 10:19 AM   2 comments links to this post