feat: the manual is a Mallard set opened in Yelp, not a GResource in the binary

The help was 14 Pango-markup `.txt` bodies in a second GResource, drawn into a paged `GtkWindow`
built in `help_window.cpp`. That made F1 a viewer of ours with no search index, no cross-references
and no translation, and it kept the manual in the *binary* when every other desktop application's is
a document on disk. It is now a real Mallard set:

  help/C/org.udpscope.app/  index.page + 14 topic pages + figures/*.png

and `show_help()` hands `help:org.udpscope.app` to whatever the desktop registered for the `help:`
scheme -- Yelp on GNOME -- through a `GtkUriLauncher`, reporting a launch failure with a
`GtkAlertDialog` rather than a click that silently does nothing. The paged window's builder, the
page table and `help_self_check()`'s markup validation are gone with the resource.

The document identifier is the desktop file's own basename (its desktop-file id), derived in
CMakeLists from `data/org.udpscope.app.desktop.in`, so the same string is the `.desktop` name, the
GApplication id and the install directory at once. The set is installed by a new `install()` rule to
`<datadir>/help/C/org.udpscope.app/` -- where the freedesktop Help System Specification's `help:`
URI resolves `help:<id>` -- so the manual is read from a datadir by another process even though the
binary has no install step. `UDPSCOPE_HELP_NAME` and `UDPSCOPE_HELP_DIR` are compiled in from that
one place.

The 14 pages were migrated fact for fact, but restructured the Mallard way: a `<desc>` per page
(what a search result shows), `<steps>` for procedures, `<terms>` for option lists,
`<gui>`/`<key>`/`<keyseq>` for interface words and keys, `<note>` for the asides, and a topic graph
via `<link type="guide" xref="index#main"/>`. The figures are annotated screenshots produced by
`tools/make-help-shots.sh`, which drives the app headlessly against `tools/mock_udpstreamer.py` and
draws the boxes with ImageMagick; the side panel's box is measured from the app's own `side=NNNx`
dump reading, the header and status bands come from a documented table, and a crop whose standard
deviation is 0 fails the script.

`cmake --build build --target test-help` checks the set the way `test-ui` checks the `.ui` files:
`yelp-check`'s offline subcommands (links, media, orphans, ids) and a `yelp-build html` render.
`yelp-check validate` is deliberately absent -- it fetches the Mallard RelaxNG schema over the
network and fails offline for that reason, not for a fault in the pages.

The `[help]` probe reading changes with the resource it was written for. `parsed == pages` over
in-binary markup cannot exist now, so `help_self_check()` scans `UDPSCOPE_HELP_DIR` and the line
reads `topics=14 index=1 figures=3`; `topics=0 index=0` is the manual missing from the tree, which
is the finding the old count named.

Verified: clean build with the documented three warnings (the help bundle's `-Woverlength-strings`
is gone, so the baseline moves from four to three); test-ui 14/14; test-help clean (the four
subcommands and 15 pages rendered); a temp-prefix install lands 15 `.page` files and 3 figures at
`share/help/C/org.udpscope.app/`; the headless run reads `[help] topics=14 index=1 figures=3 dir=...`
with 0 Gtk-CRITICAL. Yelp's own window could not be exercised on this box -- it starts under Xvfb,
activates its portals and never maps, the same WebKit/portal limitation that stops a grab -- so its
rendering and its search index are unverified here; the content pipeline was (`yelp-build` renders
the whole set).

Docs: the manual's build/install/open story in `build-and-run.md` and README; the warning baseline
in `verification.md`/CLAUDE.md; the help bullets in `invariants-gtk-and-chrome.md`; the `[help]`
line in `probe-readings.md`.
This commit is contained in:
Martino Ferrari committed 2026-10-14 16:49:30 +02:00
1 parent 620473a5be
commit c1460a6977
47 files changed
+1910 -1056

No files matched your search

+38 -21
View File
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
# Invariants: GTK traps, the status bar, the icons and the help
# Invariants: GTK traps, the status bar, the icons and the manual
The GTK signal-signature and dialog-lifetime traps this app has already fallen into, plus the status bar's two tiers, the bundled icons and the help pages.
The GTK signal-signature and dialog-lifetime traps this app has already fallen into, plus the status bar's two tiers, the bundled icons and how the Mallard manual is installed and opened.
Part of [CLAUDE.md](../../CLAUDE.md). These are rules that cost a defect to learn; read the ones touching the area you are editing before you edit it.
@@ -111,19 +111,23 @@ Part of [CLAUDE.md](../../CLAUDE.md). These are rules that cost a defect to lear
tick updates it, so a rebuild is a per-frame relayout of a widget on screen.
`update_status_popover()` only ever calls `gtk_label_set_text()`, and `popover_rebuilds` in
the dump is the assertion.
- **The About dialog, the help window and the shortcut overview are opened by `show_about()`,
`show_help()` and `show_shortcuts()`, and each closes with the matching call.** There is
exactly **one `GtkWindow`** among the three — the paged help window. It closes with
- **The About dialog and the shortcut overview are opened by `show_about()` and `show_shortcuts()`,
and each closes with the matching call; the manual is *not* one of these.** `show_help()` hands
the `help:<document>` URI to the desktop help viewer (`GtkUriLauncher`, i.e. Yelp) — a process of
its own that cannot be closed from here — because the manual is a Mallard set installed for the
freedesktop `help:` URI, not a GResource in this binary (see the help bullet below). So there is
exactly **one `GtkWindow`** among what the app opens: the shortcut overview. It closes with
`gtk_window_close()`, which emits `close-request` so the handler that nulls the file-scope
pointer runs. `gtk_window_destroy()` does **not** emit that signal and must not be used — the
math dialog fell into exactly this trap, and the pointer then points at a dead widget until the
next attempt to open the same window. The other two — the About dialog (an `AdwAboutDialog`)
and the shortcut overview (an `AdwShortcutsDialog`) — are **`AdwDialog`s and not `GtkWindow`s**:
they close with `adw_dialog_close()` and clear on `::closed`, there being no `::close-request`
on an `AdwDialog`. Both share one `on_dialog_closed()` handler keyed by a **pointer to the
pointer** it must null (`&g_about`, `&g_shortcuts`), which is what keeps one handler honest for
two dialogs. One `GtkWidget*` (or `AdwDialog*`) per window, nulled in its own close handler, is
the shape that prevents the double-open defect across all three.
next attempt to open the same window. The About dialog (an `AdwAboutDialog`) is an **`AdwDialog`
and not a `GtkWindow`**: it closes with `adw_dialog_close()` and clears on `::closed`, there being
no `::close-request` on an `AdwDialog`. It shares one `on_dialog_closed()` handler with the About
pointer, keyed by a **pointer to the pointer** it must null (`&g_about`), which keeps the handler
honest without knowing which dialog it is. One `GtkWidget*` (or `AdwDialog*`) per window, nulled
in its own close handler, is the shape that prevents the double-open defect. `close_help_windows()`
(misnamed now) closes just the two dialogs; a failed *launch* is reported by the launcher's own
callback with a `GtkAlertDialog`, so a click that cannot open the manual says so.
- **`build_info.cpp` is generated, never committed.** `cmake/write_build_info.cmake` runs at
configure time (so `add_executable` can name the file) and again on every build through
`udpscope_build_info` (so the commit and the timestamp belong to the binary that is running).
@@ -137,15 +141,28 @@ Part of [CLAUDE.md](../../CLAUDE.md). These are rules that cost a defect to lear
arrives with `Mod::Shift` set. Ctrl+Alt together zooms neither axis, which needs no special
case. The guards are `deps/plotter`'s own `ctrl_plus_zooms_only_x` and `alt_plus_zooms_only_y`
tests, plus `UDPSCOPE_PROBE_ZOOMKEYS_MS`.
- **A help page is one `.txt`, one `<file>` line in the GResource manifest, and one `kPages`
row.** The bodies are Pango markup in a second GResource (`--c-name=udpscope_help`, so its
generated symbols cannot collide with the icons'), validated with `pango_parse_markup()` at
load; a page that fails either lookup or parse renders a one-line stand-in and is excluded from
`parsed`. `UDPSCOPE_PROBE_HELP_MS`'s `parsed` must equal `pages`.
A page may also carry screenshots (`HelpPage::images`, a null-terminated list of resources).
They are `GtkPicture`s **with a height request**: one created `can_shrink` asks for *no* height
at all inside a box, so without the request it is allocated nothing and the page renders its text
with a silent gap where its screenshots should be — which is what the first version did.
- **A help page is a Mallard file, and the manual is *not* in the binary.** `help/C/<id>/` holds
`index.page`, one `<topic>.page` per subject, and the `figures/*.png` the pages link, and the
whole set is installed (the `install()` rule in CMakeLists) to `<datadir>/help/C/<id>/` — the
path the freedesktop Help System Specification's `help:` URI resolves `help:<id>` to. The
document identifier is *derived from the desktop file's basename* (`org.udpscope.app.desktop.in`
→ `org.udpscope.app`), so it is the `.desktop` name, the GApplication id and the install
directory at once; `UDPSCOPE_HELP_NAME` and `UDPSCOPE_HELP_DIR` are compiled in from that one
place. `show_help()` opens `help:<id>` with `GtkUriLauncher` (Yelp runs in its own process, so
nothing here holds a pointer to it), and its failure callback shows a `GtkAlertDialog`.
`UDPSCOPE_PROBE_HELP_MS` no longer parses pages — they are files, not markup in a resource — so
its `[help]` line asserts the set is *there*: `topics` (the `.page` files other than
`index.page`), `index`, and `figures`, scanned from `UDPSCOPE_HELP_DIR`. `topics=0 index=0` means
the manual is missing from the tree, which is the finding the old `parsed != pages` used to name.
`cmake --build build --target test-help` checks the set the way `test-ui` checks the `.ui` files:
`yelp-check`'s offline subcommands (links, media, orphans, ids) and a `yelp-build html` render.
`yelp-check validate` is deliberately absent — it fetches the Mallard RelaxNG schema over the
network and fails offline for that reason, not for a fault in the pages. The figures come from
`tools/make-help-shots.sh`, which drives the app headlessly against the mock and annotates a grab
(GTK4 must be forced to the Cairo renderer, `GSK_RENDERER=cairo`, or the X11 surface reads back
blank). Mallard is translatable with `itstool`, but there is no i18n set-up here: only the `C`
set is authored.
- **A `GtkPaned` hands its start child at least its minimum unless the position says otherwise.**
Putting the events pane in a paned is what makes its width the user's to drag -- but with the
position left alone, `shrink-start-child` or not, the pane's minimum is reserved as an empty column