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Conference koolit::document

Title:	VAX DOCUMENT
Notice:	See also BOOKIE::CUP_DOCTYPES
Moderator:	NSIC00::KLERK

Created:	Thu Jul 30 1987
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	4794
Total number of notes:	23435

4788.0. "Help doctype with the decwindows subtype" by STAR::TCARR () Thu Mar 27 1997 13:56

 I have an application that creates its decwindows help file 
by using the doctype 'help.decwindows'. However, this does not
appear to be documented in the help files anywhere so I can't
tell which version of VAX and Alpha understand this type. I
can find only one system running V2.1-1 of VAX that accepts
this doctype. Is it supported on Alpha? If so, what version
is it supported in.

Thanks,

Tom

T.R Title User Personal
Name Date Lines

4788.1 Was part of the internal kit at one time CRAYON::GENT Revolutionize yourself Thu Mar 27 1997 22:08 53

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
4788.1	Was part of the internal kit at one time	CRAYON::GENT	Revolutionize yourself	`Thu Mar 27 1997 22:08`	53
	Hi Tom, If my memory serves me correctly (and there are no guarantees of that), help.decwindows started out as part of SDMLHELP, an addon to VAX DOCUMENT. It was then incorporated into one of the internal kits. help.decwindows was used to create a hacked VMS help library used by DECwindows V1.0 to display monospaced, text-only help. With DECwindows V2.0 (or V3.0, my memory is fading now) we managed to convince the DECwindows team to support Bookreader as the help interface, providing better display of help, true hypertext, graphics, and integration with online books. To do this, VAX DOCUMENT and Bookreader were modified and a conversion process was created to help people move from DECwindows V1.0 help to what we called HyperHelp. The long and short of it is that support for V1.0 help was part of the internal kit and may have been dropped at some point. Also, none of the internal additions were included in DEC DOCUMENT after Touch took over (which is why help.decwindows is not supported on Alpha). Unfortunately, although both the V1.0 help widget and Bookreader are still shipped with DECwindows, neither is really supported anymore. For further information, you can check out the old notes conferences: ABBOTT:ON_HELP for HyperHelp (a.k.a Bookreader) CLT::HELP-WIDGET for DECwindows V1.0 help Both notes conferences are archived now and any pointers to kits are likely to be obsolete. At this point, I believe your options are to: 1. Stick with the one system you have that can process the files, knowing the format and the viewer are unsupported 2. Migrate to use of Bookreader, which is a relatively painless migration path and provides better functionality and usability, but again is only marginally supported. 3. Migrate to some other help system (i.e. NetScape, HyperHelp from Bristol Technology, etc.) which is supported but provided by a third party and for which a migration path is not defined. --Andrew Gent [email protected] DTN 381-2417 P.S. If you're wondering how I know all the preceding history, it is because I was responsible for creating SDMLHELP and driving the DECwinows V2.0 help strategy. If you would like to discuss your options further, please feel free to contact me offline.

    Hi Tom,
    
    If my memory serves me correctly (and there are *no* guarantees
    of that), help.decwindows started out as part of SDMLHELP, an addon
    to VAX DOCUMENT. It was then incorporated into one of the internal
    kits. help.decwindows was used to create a hacked VMS help library
    used by DECwindows V1.0 to display monospaced, text-only help.
    
    With DECwindows V2.0 (or V3.0, my memory is fading now) we managed
    to convince the DECwindows team to support Bookreader as the help
    interface, providing better display of help, true hypertext, graphics,
    and integration with online books. To do this, VAX DOCUMENT and
    Bookreader were modified and a conversion process was created to help
    people move from DECwindows V1.0 help to what we called HyperHelp.
    
    The long and short of it is that support for V1.0 help was part of the
    internal kit and may have been dropped at some point. Also, none of
    the internal additions were included in DEC DOCUMENT after Touch took
    over (which is why help.decwindows is not supported on Alpha).
    
    Unfortunately, although both the V1.0 help widget and Bookreader are
    still shipped with DECwindows, neither is really supported anymore.
    For further information, you can check out the old notes conferences:
    
    	ABBOTT:ON_HELP for HyperHelp (a.k.a Bookreader) 
    	CLT::HELP-WIDGET for DECwindows V1.0 help 
    
    Both notes conferences are archived now and any pointers to kits are
    likely to be obsolete.
    
    At this point, I believe your options are to:
    
    1.  Stick with the one system you have that can process the files,
        knowing the format and the viewer are unsupported
    
    2.  Migrate to use of Bookreader, which is a relatively painless
        migration path and provides better functionality and usability,
        but again is only marginally supported.
    
    3.  Migrate to some other help system (i.e. NetScape, HyperHelp from
    	Bristol Technology, etc.) which is supported but provided by a
        third party and for which a migration path is not defined.
    
    --Andrew Gent
      [email protected]
      DTN 381-2417
    
    P.S. If you're wondering how I know all the preceding history, it is
    because I was responsible for creating SDMLHELP and driving the
    DECwinows V2.0 help strategy. If you would like to discuss your options
    further, please feel free to contact me offline.