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(1) Is it possible to use CHM with Java at all?

(2) Since CHM was originally developed for the Windows platform, would it work under other operating systems? If it doesn't, using CHM would violate Java's most fundamental principle.

(3) What is the standard, established, way of creating help for Java applications?
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1) It's possible to invoke platform-specific code under Java, and to make OS calls. So anything is possible. Not a great idea <g>. You use the Runtime object.


2) CHM on Unix is compiled using WINE. This ought to tell you that developers working in this environment don't expect the CHM to be *read* in a Unix environment. IOW, they're compiling so they can distribute in this format to WIndows users. In some cases they probably have a requirement to do this, in others, hey, it's just a really convenient viewer why not use it when it's available <s>.

Even javadoc (standard dev help for java applications, not end-user help) has a javadoc-to-chm translation device available. Let me know if javadoc is what you're really interested in, because this is totally great, but I think you are asking about end-user help here.

3) Standard way of creating end-user help for a java application is javahelp. This is a java extension, meaning it should be in the javax package namespace... Check this out for a start:

http://java.sun.com/developer/technicalArticles/J2SE/Desktop/javahelp/

Which, btw, Robohelp and other common tools support, along with CHMs.

http://java.sun.com/products/javahelp/industry.html

>L<