%helps

Scilab Function
Last update : April 1993

%helps - Variable defining the path of help directories

### Description

The global variable `%helps` is an N x 2 matrix of strings. The kth row of `%helps` , `%helps(k,:)` represents the kth chapter of the manual and is made of two strings:

`%helps(k,1)` is the absolute pathname for a help directory.

`%helps(k,2)` is a title for this help directory. For instance, for k=2, we have the graphics chapter `%helps(2,:)` .

The variable `%helps` is defined in the Scilab startup file `SCI+"/scilab.star"` .

To add a new help directory, the user should add a row to the variable `%helps` . (One row for each directory).

For instance, `%helps=[%helps; "Path-Of-My-Help-Dir","My-Title"];` enables the Scilab help browser to look for help manual items in the directory with pathname "Path-Of-My-Help-Dir".

"My-Title" is then the title of a new help chapter.

A valid help directory must contain:

1- A set of `.html` files (e.g. `item1.html, item2.html` etc). The `.html` files are usually built from XML files.

2- A `whatis.html` file, which must have a special format. Each row of the `whatis` must be as follows:

    <BR><A HREF="item.html">item</A> - quick description

`item` is the item of the help, i.e. the command `help item` displays the contents of the file `item.html` .

The command `apropos keyword` returns the row(s) of all the `whatis.html` file(s) in which the keyword appears.

On Linux platforms Scilab provides a Makefile for transforming `.xml` pages into `.html` pages (see SCIDIR/examples/man-examples).

### See Also

`apropos` , `help` , `man` ,