gh-91242: Remove CHM (Compiled HTML Help) build infrastructure

Remove all CHM compilation infrastructure to complete the deprecation
that began in August 2022. CHM format documentation is now obsolete
and has been replaced by HTML documentation.

Changes:
- Doc/: Remove CHM compilation from make.bat, remove htmlhelp config
  from conf.py, update Makefile and README.rst to remove CHM references
- PC/layout/: Remove CHM file copying, constants, options, and manifest
  entries from the Windows package layout system
- Tools/msi/: Remove CHM support from MSI installer build and upload
  scripts

The htmlhelp build target is retained as it remains useful for
generating HTML Help format files without CHM compilation.

🤖 Generated with [Claude Code](https://claude.com/claude-code)

Co-Authored-By: Claude <noreply@anthropic.com>

Author: gpshead

Doc/Makefile

@@ -84,8 +84,7 @@ html: build
 .PHONY: htmlhelp
 htmlhelp: BUILDER = htmlhelp
 htmlhelp: build
-	@echo "Build finished; now you can run HTML Help Workshop with the" \
-	      "build/htmlhelp/pydoc.hhp project file."
+	@echo "Build finished. The HTML Help files are in build/htmlhelp."
 
 .PHONY: latex
 latex: BUILDER = latex

Doc/README.rst

@@ -66,13 +66,8 @@ Available make targets are:
   starts a local server, and automatically reloads the page in your browser
   when you make changes to reST files (Unix only).
 
-* "htmlhelp", which builds HTML files and a HTML Help project file usable to
-  convert them into a single Compiled HTML (.chm) file -- these are popular
-  under Microsoft Windows, but very handy on every platform.
-
-  To create the CHM file, you need to run the Microsoft HTML Help Workshop
-  over the generated project (.hhp) file.  The ``make.bat`` script does this for
-  you on Windows.
+* "htmlhelp", which builds HTML files in HTML Help format -- this format
+  is useful on every platform.
 
 * "latex", which builds LaTeX source files as input to ``pdflatex`` to produce
   PDF documents.

Doc/conf.py

@@ -278,13 +278,6 @@
         '<a href="https://about.readthedocs.com/">Read the Docs</a>'
     )
 
-# Override stylesheet fingerprinting for Windows CHM htmlhelp to fix GH-91207
-# https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/91207
-if any('htmlhelp' in arg for arg in sys.argv):
-    html_style = 'pydoctheme.css'
-    print("\nWARNING: Windows CHM Help is no longer supported.")
-    print("It may be removed in the future\n")
-
 # Short title used e.g. for <title> HTML tags.
 html_short_title = f'{release} Documentation'
 
@@ -327,9 +320,6 @@
 # Additional static files.
 html_static_path = ['_static', 'tools/static']
 
-# Output file base name for HTML help builder.
-htmlhelp_basename = 'python' + release.replace('.', '')
-
 # Split the index
 html_split_index = True
 

Doc/make.bat

@@ -48,23 +48,6 @@ if not defined SPHINXLINT (
     set SPHINXLINT=%PYTHON% -m sphinxlint
 )
 
-if "%1" NEQ "htmlhelp" goto :skiphhcsearch
-if exist "%HTMLHELP%" goto :skiphhcsearch
-
-rem Search for HHC in likely places
-set HTMLHELP=
-where hhc /q && set "HTMLHELP=hhc" && goto :skiphhcsearch
-where /R ..\externals hhc > "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" 2> nul && set /P HTMLHELP= < "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" & del "%TEMP%\hhc.loc"
-if not exist "%HTMLHELP%" where /R "%ProgramFiles(x86)%" hhc > "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" 2> nul && set /P HTMLHELP= < "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" & del "%TEMP%\hhc.loc"
-if not exist "%HTMLHELP%" where /R "%ProgramFiles%" hhc > "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" 2> nul && set /P HTMLHELP= < "%TEMP%\hhc.loc" & del "%TEMP%\hhc.loc"
-if not exist "%HTMLHELP%" (
-    echo.
-    echo.The HTML Help Workshop was not found.  Set the HTMLHELP variable
-    echo.to the path to hhc.exe or download and install it from
-    echo.http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms669985
-    exit /B 1
-)
-:skiphhcsearch
 
 if not defined DISTVERSION for /f "usebackq" %%v in (`%PYTHON% tools/extensions/patchlevel.py`) do set DISTVERSION=%%v
 
@@ -149,12 +132,6 @@ if "%1" EQU "htmlhelp" (
 )
 cmd /S /C "%SPHINXBUILD% %SPHINXOPTS% --builder %1 --doctree-dir build\doctrees . "%BUILDDIR%\%1" %2 %3 %4 %5 %6 %7 %8 %9"
 
-if "%1" EQU "htmlhelp" (
-    "%HTMLHELP%" "%BUILDDIR%\htmlhelp\python%DISTVERSION:.=%.hhp"
-    rem hhc.exe seems to always exit with code 1, reset to 0 for less than 2
-    if not errorlevel 2 cmd /C exit /b 0
-)
-
 echo.
 if errorlevel 1 (
     echo.Build failed (exit code %ERRORLEVEL%^), check for error messages

PC/layout/main.py

@@ -291,10 +291,6 @@ def _c(d):
                 continue
             yield dest, src
 
-    if ns.include_chm:
-        for dest, src in rglob(ns.doc_build / "htmlhelp", PYTHON_CHM_NAME):
-            yield "Doc/{}".format(dest), src
-
     if ns.include_html_doc:
         for dest, src in rglob(ns.doc_build / "html", "**/*"):
             yield "Doc/html/{}".format(dest), src

PC/layout/support/appxmanifest.py

@@ -171,10 +171,6 @@
                 ),
             },
             "Help": {
-                "Main Python Documentation": {
-                    "_condition": lambda ns: ns.include_chm,
-                    "": "[{{AppVPackageRoot}}]\\Doc\\{}".format(PYTHON_CHM_NAME),
-                },
                 "Local Python Documentation": {
                     "_condition": lambda ns: ns.include_html_doc,
                     "": "[{AppVPackageRoot}]\\Doc\\html\\index.html",

PC/layout/support/constants.py

@@ -77,9 +77,5 @@ def check_patchlevel_version(sources):
 PYTHON_ZIP_NAME = "python{}{}.zip".format(VER_MAJOR, VER_MINOR)
 PYTHON_PTH_NAME = "python{}{}._pth".format(VER_MAJOR, VER_MINOR)
 
-PYTHON_CHM_NAME = "python{}{}{}{}.chm".format(
-    VER_MAJOR, VER_MINOR, VER_MICRO, VER_SUFFIX
-)
-
 FREETHREADED_PYTHON_DLL_NAME = "python{}{}t.dll".format(VER_MAJOR, VER_MINOR)
 FREETHREADED_PYTHON_STABLE_DLL_NAME = "python{}t.dll".format(VER_MAJOR)

PC/layout/support/options.py

@@ -30,7 +30,6 @@ def public(f):
     "appxmanifest": {"help": "an appxmanifest"},
     "props": {"help": "a python.props file"},
     "nuspec": {"help": "a python.nuspec file"},
-    "chm": {"help": "the CHM documentation"},
     "html-doc": {"help": "the HTML documentation"},
     "freethreaded": {"help": "freethreaded binaries", "not-in-all": True},
     "alias": {"help": "aliased python.exe entry-point binaries"},

PC/layout/support/pymanager.py

@@ -219,15 +219,6 @@ def calculate_install_json(ns, *, for_embed=False, for_test=False):
             "Name": f"{DISPLAY_NAME} {VER_DOT} Manuals{DISPLAY_SUFFIX}",
             "Target": r"%PREFIX%Doc\html\index.html",
         })
-    elif ns.include_chm:
-        STD_PEP514[0]["Help"]["Main Python Documentation"] = {
-            "_": rf"%PREFIX%Doc\{PYTHON_CHM_NAME}",
-        }
-        STD_START[0]["Items"].append({
-            "Name": f"{DISPLAY_NAME} {VER_DOT} Manuals{DISPLAY_SUFFIX}",
-            "Target": "%WINDIR%hhc.exe",
-            "Arguments": rf"%PREFIX%Doc\{PYTHON_CHM_NAME}",
-        })
 
     STD_UNINSTALL.append({
         "kind": "uninstall",

Tools/msi/get_externals.bat

@@ -53,7 +53,6 @@ set binaries=
 rem We always use whatever's latest in the repo for these
 set binaries=%binaries%     binutils
 set binaries=%binaries%     gpg
-set binaries=%binaries%     htmlhelp
 set binaries=%binaries%     nuget
 set binaries=%binaries%     redist-1
 set binaries=%binaries%     wix-314