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Re: WinHelp on Vista

Subject: Re: WinHelp on Vista
From: Mike Starr <mike -at- writestarr -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2006 10:58:39 -0400

From: "Bill Swallow" <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>
Subject: Re: WinHelp on Vista

"Clear"? MS has already changed their official position several times on
this matter. Maybe the download will be canceled or be too kludgy. Or
maybe it'll worktechwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
fine, and MS will let third parties distribute it.

MS never changed their position, rather they finally made a decision
on what to do. I believe their official position has always been to
drop WinHelp support since it relies on old technology that would hold
Vista and future OSes back. Their last decision (which seems to be a
final decision) is to allow for legacy WinHelp support via a download.
Also, it's my understanding that they needed to make some changes to
the WinHelp engine in order for it to properly function in Vista.

Let's face it, although it is solid, WinHelp is an old technology. At
some point it needs to be put to bed to promote technological
advancement within the Windows OS, among OS-friendly applications, and
of course within the community that authors user assistance for those
applications.

WinHelp may be OLD technology but as far as I'm concerned, it's still superior to the "NEW" technology. CHM help has never come close to delivering a help product that provides any advance over WinHelp. I don't have to implement any kluges to get WinHelp to provide formatted popups and it always works no matter what version of Windows my users have. It doesn't fail based on the user's version of Internet Explorer and it doesn't fail depending on networking security issues.

I'd venture a guess that with InstallShield or something similar I can invoke a download of the WinHelp engine for Vista as part of the install process.

<charlton heston>I'm sticking with WinHelp until they pry it from my cold, dead hands. </charlton heston>
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