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This file is part of Logtalk https://logtalk.org/ SPDX-FileCopyrightText: 1998-2025 Paulo Moura <pmoura@logtalk.org> SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

help

This tool provides help for Logtalk features and libraries when running in most operating-systems. For help on the Logtalk compiler error and warning messages, see the tutor tool.

Requirements

On Windows, the start command must be available. On Linux, the xdg-open command must be available. On macOS, the command open is used.

Browsing the Handbook and APIs documentation at the top-level requires a POSIX system and one of the following terminal-based browsers installed:

• https://invisible-island.net/lynx/
• https://w3m.sourceforge.net/
• http://links.twibright.com/
• https://sr.ht/~bptato/chawan/ The preferred browser can be set in a settings.lgt file by defining the help_default_browser user-defined flag as follows:

  :- initialization(
          create_logtalk_flag(help_default_browser, Browser, [type(atom), keep(true)])
  ).

  The valid values for Browser are: lynx, w3m, links, cha, and default (default means use the operating-system default browser instead of one of the terminal-based browsers).

  The samples/settings-sample.lgt file contains commented out code for this flag.

  On Windows systems, the documentation is open in the operating-system default browser.

API documentation

This tool API documentation is available at:

[../../apis/library_index.html#help](../../apis/library_index.html#help)

Loading

| ?- logtalk_load(help(loader)).

Testing

To test this tool, load the tester.lgt file:

| ?- logtalk_load(help(tester)).

Supported operating-systems

Currently, support is limited to Linux, macOS, and Windows.

This tool relies on the library portable operating-system access abstraction.

Usage

After loading the tool, use the query `help::help` to get started:

| ?- logtalk_load(help(loader)). ...

| ?- help::help. ...

When using ECLiPSe, you will need to write the object name, help, between parentheses to avoid a clash with the "help" built-in operator:

| ?- (help)::help. ...

Same sample help queries:

% get et on-line help for the `logtalk_load/2` built-in predicate:

| ?- help::logtalk_load/2. ...

% get on-line help for the eos//0 built-in non-terminal:

| ?- help::eos//0. ...

% consult the Handbook:

| ?- help::handbook. ...

% consult the APIs documentation:

| ?- help::apis. ...

% consult the APIs documentation about a library predicate:

| ?- help::apis(member/2). ...

% consult the APIs documentation about a library non-terminal:

| ?- help::apis(one_or_more//0). ...

% consult the documentation of a library:

| ?- help::library(random). ...

% consult the documentation of an entity:

| ?- help::entity(logtalk). ...

% consult the developer tools documentation:

| ?- help::tools. ...

% consult the documentation of the lgtunit tool:

| ?- help::tool(lgtunit). ...

When using the terminal-based browsers, after finishing consulting the documentation and quitting the process, you will be back to the top-level prompt (if you find that the top-level have scrolled from its last position, try to set your terminal terminfo to `xterm-256colour`).

If you're running Logtalk from a git clone of its repo, you will need to run the docs/apis/sources/build.sh or docs/apis/sources/build.ps1 scripts to generate APIs documentation HTML files and also run the docs/handbook/sources/build.sh or docs/handbook/sources/build.ps1 scripts to generate the Handbook HTML files. Alternatively, you can download the documentation for the latest stable release from the Logtalk website and save them to the docs directories.

On POSIX systems, one of the supported terminal-based browsers must be installed unless you prefer using the default browser. By default, the tool checks first for lynx, second for w3m, third for links, and finally for chawan.

On macOS, these browsers can be installed with either MacPorts:

$ sudo port install lynx
$ sudo port install w3m
$ sudo port install links

Or using Homebrew:

$ brew install lynx
$ brew install w3m
$ brew install links
$ brew install chawan

On Linux systems, use the distribution's own package manager to install the browsers. For example, in Ubuntu systems:

$ sudo apt install lynx
$ sudo apt install w3m

Known issues

When using the terminal-based browsers, the Handbook and APIs search boxes are not usable as they require JavaScript support. Use instead the indexes.

The open commands used to open documentation URLs in the default browser drop the fragment part, thus preventing navigation to the specified position on the documentation page.

ECLiPSe defines a help prefix operator that forces wrapping this atom between parentheses when sending messages to the tool. E.g. use `(help)::help` instead of `help::help`.