Conference iosg::all-in-1_v30

683.0. "HELP!" by GLOVES::ALLERTON (Steve Allerton 343-0205) Wed May 13 1992 22:29

                
    I have a few observations/questions relating to the way ALL-IN-1 help
    now works in V3.0 :
    
    1)  Where does the "logical" OAHELP "reside ? "  A $SH LOG OAHELP or 
        <logical OAHELP returns nothing, yet if you manually define the 
        logical to point somewhere, it sure nips help in the bud.  I
        suppose the next observation relates to this...
    
    2)  Entering ALL-IN-1 /nocustom still accesses the "SITE" version of 
        OAHELP.HLB.  This seems a little inconsistent with the rest of 
        things. The only way I've found to "fall back" on the original
        version is to rename the SITE version to something else or use 
        the READ/PRINT options in CM.
    
    3)  Is there a way (short of customizing CM or doing it at DCL level) to 
        apply edits to the formatted versions of help modules rather than
        the unformatted versions?  I don't condone this practice, but I 
        believe a number of customers (and programming instructors) might not 
        be accustomed to or excited about the prospect of being "forced"
        into working with RUNOFF format.  (Please don't jump on me for
        this -- I'd just like to know for sure so I'll be able to answer
        another one of those sure-to-be "why did they do it this way" 
        rathole questions).
    
    4)  When a new help module is created in CM, a template is conveniently 
        provided as a point of departure, with the level-1 keyword
        automatically in place, and standard runoff commands (thank
        goodness) provided.  Instructions to "Insert title here" and 
        "Insert text here" are tabbed over a few columns.  If you replace 
        the text here as instructed (at least that's how I interpret the
        instructions), it ends up being double-spaced when displayed.  
        Pulling text to the left margin restores single line 
        spacing. 
    
        Thanks,
    
        Steve   

    Steve,
    
    ALL-IN-1 only needs the OAHELP logical defined if you want to use
    anything other than the standard help library.  
    
    I wouldn't apply edits to formatted help. It's easy to screw things up.
    Practice safe help and use RUNOFF. Those that live on the wild side
    will perish by the sword (eventually), or something like that.
    
    The real experts on ALL-IN-1 help are the writers. Maybe they'd like to
    give a potted guide on how to build a module here?  We may have the
    template help module incorrectly formatted, and if so we'll fix it.
    
    Tony

    
    Steve, 
    
    Referring to point 2, the help code is probably the only code which
    doesn't know how to handle SITE libraries. But you cannot realy talk
    about SITE libraries as it takes the library as it comes.
    
    If you assume there are only 2 help libraries on the system 
    (OA$LIB_<language>:OAHELP.HLB and 
    OA$SITE_LIB_<language>:[SITE]OAHELP.HLB) then OA.BLI might be changed
    to check whether ALL-IN-1 is started /CUSTOM or /NOCUSTOM, check if
    libraries are available and then define the logical OAHELP, or some
    OAINI.SCP which could do the same (and would be a lot easier).
    
    Unfortunately...
    
    	Simon

    
    Thanks Tony/Simon,
    
    This version of OAINI.SCP works for me ...
    
    ! Check /NOCUSTOM switch
    !
    .if oa$custom then .goto exit_custom
      .fu get #eq = "DISK1:[ALLIN1.LIB_ENGLISH]OAHELP.HLB"
      .fu get oa$function = "logical " "OAHELP" "," #EQ
    .exit
    !
    .label exit_custom
    !
    ! Check to see if there's a customized version first, then use it if
    ! there
    !
      .fu get #help_custom = FILE$.STATUS["OA$SITE_LIB_LLV:OAHELP.HLB"]
      .if #help_custom == 26 then .goto exit
      .fu get #eq = "DISK1:[ALLIN1.SITE.LIB_ENGLISH]OAHELP.HLB"
      .fu get oa$function = "logical " "OAHELP" "," #EQ
    !
    .label exit
    .exit
    
    Steve