Java-Help vs. Eclipse-Help (RCP-Help)

[Isaac Jones]

Hi everyone

can please someone tell me what the big difference between java-help and eclipse-help is? as i can see it both standards use xml files which are linked to html-pages. which standard would you recommend and why? by the way, the application im writing is probably going to be using eclipse's rcp standard (this does not mean I'd have to you use the eclipse-help, does it?).
and does anyone know any good tools which could help me creating these help-files (does not necessarily have to be freeware).

Thanks in advance for your time!

with kind regards

[Ken Blair]

Based on this article and my limited experience with Java Help there seems to be several major differences. The first and perhaps most significant is that Eclipse Help actually runs off an embedded Tomcat server. My recollection is that Java Help merely finds the HTML file on disk and displays it. With Eclipse Help you would be able to use JSPs and probably other technologies since it runs off of Tomcat. As far as I'm aware that's not possible in Java Help. Also, the article mentions easily converting Eclipse Help to standalone documentation. That might be possible with Java Help too so I can't say whether or not it's a difference. Also, because Eclipse Help runs off of Tomcat you can take advantage of the Apache Lucene search engine. I'm not aware of what engine Java Help uses or how they compare.

Overall, it sounds like Eclipse Help brings more overhead and a little complexity with a lot of added flexibility. Of course you should research this on your own and make your own decisions, that's just what jumped out of me and may be inaccurate.

[Isaac Jones]

hi

thanks a lot for your answer. that helps already. do you or anyone else know if you could run the tomcat server on a server so that not every client would have to start its own tomcat?

regards