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╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ║
║ ISoft D&M ║
║ POB. 5517 ║
║ Coralville IA 52241 ║
║ U.S.A ║
║ ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝
*******************************************************************************
* HELPC Help Engine Technical specification and compiler user guide *
* LAST UPDATE - Apr. 09, 1993. (c) 1992,93 - Loewy Ron. *
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
* General Overview *
*******************************************************************************
The Help Engine database is a combination of text that is read by the user,
and a Topic and Links database that allows the user to view the topics
he is interested in, using hyper-text methods.
Each help database is built of 4 file components :
1. Help Data File - this file contains the raw text data.
2. Topic Index File - a database table that contains the topic names, and
the references to the topics in the Data File.
3. Links Index File - a database table that contains the list of links
defined for each topic, and positional data.
4. Set Data File - a database configuration file that contains the
names of the 3 components defined above, and some
additional information.
Version 1.x is the bare-bones version that includes only the basic
operations needed from a hyper-text database, this version is implemented
using the Paradox Engine V3.0 to manage the Topic and Link index tables.
Version 2.x has a new field in the topic table - the title field, help
databases that were compiled with V1.x will not be executed by version
2.x, they will have to be re-compiled!.
Version 3.x fields have different length - the databases have to be
re-compiled.
The format of the help database is released to the public domain, if
you implement a database viewer on this database structure, I would be
happy to receive a copy ..
*******************************************************************************
* Compiler Usage *
*******************************************************************************
The HELPC help compiler is a dos command line program that receives a
help definition file (.HDF) and produce a help database.
The helpC command line is :
HELPC source.fil [/Htopic-table-name] [/Llink-table-name] [/Ddata-file-name]
[/R-] [/W+] [/W30] [/W31] [TH+] [/QH+] [/TV+] [/PH+]
The output of the compiler is a set data file called source.SET, that
includes the names of the other help database components.
Please Notice - if the /W+ /W30 or /W31 switch is defined, the compiler
will generate a .HPJ and .RTF files that can be used with the Microsoft
HC (v3.00b) or HC31 help compiler, and output a .HLP windows help file!.
By default the help compiler produces a help cross reference report on the
topics/links used in the database, if the /R- switch is set, no cross-ref
report will be generated, and no database integrity indicators will be
given.
IMPORTANT - Scan the output cross reference report for links defined, that
are not defined as topics!
Notice - An additional switch is available that instructs the help compiler
to indicate it's parse and code generation progress. Use the /EP+ switch to
see that the helpC compiler is active. Please understand that the compile
process can take a long time, on complex help databases. This switch does
nothing more that ensure to you that the help compiler is alive.
*******************************************************************************
* Help Definition Format *
*******************************************************************************
The help definition file format is as follows :
remarks ...
remarks ...
.ENTRY topic-name
[.TITLE optional title for topic]
topic text and link reference ..
topic text and link reference ..
topic text and link reference ..
topic text and link reference ..
.END-ENTRY
remarks ...
.ENTRY topic2-name
topic2 text ...
.END-ENTRY
As can be seen - lines between the .ENTRY and .END-ENTRY keywords are
the lines processed by the help compiler, to create the help database,
every other line is considered a remark, and is not parsed or evaluated by
the help compiler.
The topic text and link reference lines are simple text lines, with
special link marks.
A sample will provide the details :
This is a text help line that includes one ~link~link-topic-name~ in it.
This line will be displayed in the help engine program as :
This is a text help line that includes one link in it.
The word "link" will be in a different color then the rest of the line,
to indicate that this is a link. If the user hi-lights the link, and
presses Enter (or points the mouse cursor and clicks), the help engine will
look for a topic called "link-topic-name", and display it.
Browse the HELPDEMO.HDF file for a demo of a help database definition file.
Notes :
1. The keywords .TOPIC and .END-TOPIC can be used instead of .ENTRY and
.END-ENTRY respectivly.
2. Keywords are NOT case sensitive. (.topic = .TOPIC = .eNTry)
3. The .TITLE keyword is optional. If no title is defined, the topic name
is used as a title. (just like in v1.x).
4. If you want the ~ sign to appear in your help database, use ~~ in your
help source file. (e.g. "This is a ~~" will be "This is a ~" in the final
help database.).
Additional commands include :
.LINKCOLOR and .LINKHIGH - VGA colors of links in normal and high (selected)
states in the native help format.
The syntax of these commands is :
.LINKCOLOR x
or
.LINKHIGH y
Where x and y are the color of the link, which is a combination of the color
of the foreground with the color of the background multiplied by 16.
The colors that can be used for both fore and background are :
Black = 0
Blue = 1
Green = 2
Cyan = 3
Red = 4
Magenta = 5
Brown = 6
LightGray = 7
The colors that can be used only for the foreground are :
DarkGray = 8
LightBlue = 9
LightGreen = 10
LightCyan = 11
LightRed = 12
LightMagenta = 13
Yellow = 14
White = 15
For example : to set the normal color of a link to light green on blue, use
.LINKCOLOR 26
where 26 = 10 + 16 * 1. (10 = light green, 1 = blue).
Creating Multiple Source Projects :
Use the .INCLUDE commands in the source of your .HDF file, to include an
additional source file.
For Example :
.. some stuff
.include 2ndfile.hdf
.. additional stuff
will process 2NDFILE.HDF in the middle of our source file.
Please notice - .INCLUDE commands can be nested in your source file,
it is however not recommended to nest them too deep, helpC does not
close the input file when a .INCLUDEd file is processed, in order to
minimize help generation time - there is however, a limit on the number
of open files that can be used by a program - this is a limit set by dos.
GUI Font based targets :
The .FIXEDFONT command is used to define a non proportional font as the
default font of the help database. Currently the only targets affected
by this command are windows winHelp v3.x. If you find that your help
databases are not aligned after they are converted to winHelp format, use
this command and re-compile. This command has no effect on targets that are
different from the targets mentioned before.
*******************************************************************************
* Topic Index Format *
*******************************************************************************
The topic index table format is as follows :
TOPIC - 40 charcters string key - this is the topic "name".
FILENAME - 38 characters string field - includes the name of the
help raw data file. (Notice - V1.0 ignores the value of this
field, it is here for future expansion).
START - longint (long) field that contains the offset from the data file
start, to the start of the topics text data, in bytes.
LEN - integer (int) field that contains the length (in bytes) of the
text data of the topic.
TITLE - 50 characters string key - the title of the topic.
*******************************************************************************
* Links Index Format *
*******************************************************************************
The links index table format is as follows :
TOPIC - 40 characters string key - the name of the topic that
has the link.
SEQ - integer (int) key - contains the sequential number of
the link in the topic. (This way you can assign the links
order in the topic).
LINK - 40 characters string key - the name of the link topic to
display if the link is chosen.
LINE - integer (int) field - the line (from the start of the topic)
this link is displayed on.
COL - integer (int) field - the column this link is displayed on.
TXT - 60 characters string field - the text to display on the line.
*******************************************************************************
* Set-File-Format *
*******************************************************************************
The set file is a text file that contains one entry in each line, using
the following format :
topic-index-table name
links-index-table name
help-raw-data-file name
number-of-topics
length-of-file
version-of-generating-compiler
link-normal-color
link-high-color
*******************************************************************************
* Implementation *
*******************************************************************************
Notice - The Paradox tables (Topic, Links) include one additional field
(wtGeneration) for future expansion purpose only.
*******************************************************************************
* Distribution *
*******************************************************************************
To distribute a database of your creation, compile the help definition
file, and include the HELPENG.EXE file with the .DB, .PX files, and the
.HDT file created by the compiler.
If you generated the Windows (/W30, /W31) help file, you can complile the
.HPJ and .RTF generated file, and distribute the resulting .HLP .
If you generate QH, THELP, POPHELP or TVHC use these packages compilers to
compile you sources into native binary codes. (helpMake, HL, makeHelp and TVHC)
For examples on these compiler's command lines please refer to the quick
start section of HLPDK.DOC, or to your compiler's documentation.