Hi

Ive done a search of these news groups and hope I haven't missed a previous discussion on this issue.

I believe that MS's new OS "Vista" will no longer support the old .hlp help viewer and that an installation of this viewer will be required. Are there
plans to upgrade the help systems to HTML for shipped DBISAM software so this will not be necessary.

One of my big selling points is ease of deployment. This will present a problem to me.

Roland

Roland,

<< Ive done a search of these news groups and hope I haven't missed a
previous discussion on this issue.

I believe that MS's new OS "Vista" will no longer support the old .hlp help
viewer and that an installation of this viewer will be required. Are there
plans to upgrade the help systems to HTML for shipped DBISAM software so
this will not be necessary.

One of my big selling points is ease of deployment. This will present a
problem to me. >>

The only reason that we still have the help in WinHelp format is because of
the IDE requirement for it in older versions of Delphi and C++Builder.
Borland Developer Studio 2005 and 2006 support for DBISAM already includes
MS Help 2 help, which is an XML/HTML-based help system.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

Sorry, perhaps I should have been more specific than in the subject line.

I am referring to the end User help associated with the shipped dbsys.exe, srvadmin.exe and dbsrvr.exe executables.

Roland

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" <timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote:

Roland,

<< Ive done a search of these news groups and hope I haven't missed a
previous discussion on this issue.

I believe that MS's new OS "Vista" will no longer support the old .hlp help
viewer and that an installation of this viewer will be required. Are there
plans to upgrade the help systems to HTML for shipped DBISAM software so
this will not be necessary.

One of my big selling points is ease of deployment. This will present a
problem to me. >>

The only reason that we still have the help in WinHelp format is because of
the IDE requirement for it in older versions of Delphi and C++Builder.
Borland Developer Studio 2005 and 2006 support for DBISAM already includes
MS Help 2 help, which is an XML/HTML-based help system.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim

>The only reason that we still have the help in WinHelp format is because of
>the IDE requirement for it in older versions of Delphi and C++Builder.
>Borland Developer Studio 2005 and 2006 support for DBISAM already includes
>MS Help 2 help, which is an XML/HTML-based help system.

You forgot to mention that by comparison with the old .hlp it sucks big time. I don't know if this is just DevCo or is standard M$ for this type of help.

Roy Lambert

FWIW, I did a test of an older app of ours the other day on Vista. From
what I'd read in the MS developer texts the WinHelp support is to be a
downloadable option. But when I hit F1 in my app, I got a page saying "why
isn't help available in this application? Because it is old. Try this
link". I followed the link, and it said that the "WinHelp system is 16-bit
and doesn't meet Microsoft's standards so is no longer available. Contact
your vendor." No offer of a download to fix it, so most people will now
stop and think what poor software it is.

I'm afraid to say that I think there will be a need to ship both formats
so that people can actually open the help even if Delphi won't support it.
Or find the link to the Vista download and tell people - Microsoft aren't.

/Matthew Jones/

Roland,

<< Sorry, perhaps I should have been more specific than in the subject line.

I am referring to the end User help associated with the shipped dbsys.exe,
srvadmin.exe and dbsrvr.exe executables. >>

Ahh, yes, we plan on updating that to using HTMLHelp instead.  Plus HTML is
just nicer and easier to deal with than the crappy RTF in WinHelp.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Roy,

<< You forgot to mention that by comparison with the old .hlp it sucks big
time. I don't know if this is just DevCo or is standard M$ for this type of
help. >>

Yes, it's pretty lame for supposedly being an upgrade.  It's almost easier
to simply go on line and look at the online html help at a company's web
site.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Matthew,

<< FWIW, I did a test of an older app of ours the other day on Vista. From
what I'd read in the MS developer texts the WinHelp support is to be a
downloadable option. >>

Yes, that's what I've read also.

<< But when I hit F1 in my app, I got a page saying "why isn't help
available in this application? Because it is old. Try this link". I followed
the link, and it said that the "WinHelp system is 16-bit and doesn't meet
Microsoft's standards so is no longer available. Contact your vendor." No
offer of a download to fix it, so most people will now stop and think what
poor software it is. >>

Wonderful.  Thanks MS.

<< I'm afraid to say that I think there will be a need to ship both formats
so that people can actually open the help even if Delphi won't support it.
Or find the link to the Vista download and tell people - Microsoft aren't.
>>

We can't do much about the older IDE help, but we'll be replacing the
utility help with HTMLHelp ASAP.  This is a particularly volatile time to be
a software vendor, it seems.  A lot of concurrent changes in the pipe with
..NET, Linux, Vista, 64-bit, etc.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Thanks,

I'm looking forward to the update.

Cheers

Roland.

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" <timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote:

Roland,

<< Sorry, perhaps I should have been more specific than in the subject line.

I am referring to the end User help associated with the shipped dbsys.exe,
srvadmin.exe and dbsrvr.exe executables. >>

Ahh, yes, we plan on updating that to using HTMLHelp instead.  Plus HTML is
just nicer and easier to deal with than the crappy RTF in WinHelp.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

Tim


Just a plea - keep the pdf's as well - I find them more helpful than the help.

Roy Lambert