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Re: Adding hyperlinks to help browser files in function::usage

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg47428] Re: Adding hyperlinks to help browser files in function::usage
• From: drbob at bigfoot.com (Bobby R. Treat)
• Date: Sun, 11 Apr 2004 04:44:05 -0400 (EDT)
• References: <c527dc$dtu$1@smc.vnet.net> <200404090845.EAA03148@smc.vnet.net> <c582lt$nos$1@smc.vnet.net>
• Sender: owner-wri-mathgroup at wolfram.com

Wolfram clearly doesn't want us to know such tricks, my friend. It's a
bit like that "tree of the knowledge of good and evil", maybe.

Bobby

"J. McKenzie Alexander" <jalex at lse.ac.uk> wrote in message news:<c582lt$nos$1 at smc.vnet.net>...
> I have a question regarding the interaction between usage notes for  
> user-defined functions and custom help documents written for inclusion  
> in the Mathematica help browser.
> 
> As you all know, the usage notes for a built-in function like Abs have  
> the form
> 
> 	"Abs[z] gives the absolute value of the real or complex number z.  
> More..."
> 
> where the "More..." is a hyperlink that, when clicked on, takes you to  
> the appropriate help page.
> 
> Looking at the actual definition of Abs::usage, though, reveals that  
> the hyperlink isn't part of the usage notes.  In  
> /Applications/Mathematica  
> 5.0.app/SystemFiles/Kernel/TextResources/English/Usage.m (I'm running  
> OS X) it is defined as:
> 
> 	Abs::usage = "Abs[z] gives the absolute value of the real or complex  
> number z.";
> 
> So the hyperlink is being added automatically some way.  How?  And what  
> is the "proper" way to get this behaviour for the usage notes of  
> functions I define in packages I write?
> 
> After a lot of poking around, the only solution I've found (which is  
> hardly elegant) is to do the following.  Assuming that HexGraph.nb is  
> installed under "Add-Ons & Links" in the help browser, define
> 
> HexGraph::usage="HexGraph[cols, rows] creates a hexagonal lattice  
> having cols 'columns' and rows 'rows'. Setting the option  
> EqualColumnHeights->False indicates that only odd numbered columns  
> should have the specified number of rows.  
> \!\(\*ButtonBox[\(More?\),ButtonStyle->\"AddOnsLink\",ButtonData: 
>  >\"HexGraph\"]\)";
> 
> I suspect, though, given the definition of Abs::usage, that adding the  
> hyperlink can be automated in some way when the help files are built or  
> installed in the browser.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Jason