Re: I'm sticking with WinHelp (was Re: WinHelp on Vista - a usefullink)

[Sean Wheller <sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za>]

On Friday 22 September 2006 19:36, Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
> As someone who is 99% help user and barely 1% help
> developer, you're damned right I am.  New designs are
> certainly worth looking into, but I have mission-critical
> apps I've been using for years, some of which were
> made by companies that no longer exist and have no
> contemporary equivalents.  If Vista can't run these
> with no loss of functionality, then regardless of
> whatever else the OS may add, it's out of a job here.

Thanks Gene for saying this.

At the risk of sounding religious. Your comment above, perhaps this whole 
thread, is a classic example of why vendor lock-in is not a good thing.

 Perhaps it is time that we develop an open source help viewer?

Personally, I would like to see a Help Viewer that will work across platform. 
One that can be enhanced and extended as required by anyone with an itch to 
do so. Some may argue that Java Help is cross-platform. I agree, but many do 
not like Java and hardly want to install Java just in order to run their 
non-Java application. Besides, look at all the help formats out there, but 
still we have this type of debate over a tool to view help. I think it's time 
to solve the problem once and for all.

Having a cross-platform, open source Help Viewer, licensed under GNU-GPL will 
not only release help developers from vendor lock-in, but also provide the 
possibility of offering a standard way of developing for, and delivering, 
help across platforms. It also means that support for legacy help systems 
never has to be jettisoned just because of technological advancement. As Gene 
points out, there is a huge legacy out there. However, the main benefit I can 
see is that the community will finally have control over the Help Viewer 
environment and will therefore be able to help shape it.

Yes, this means packaging and installing a new type of help viewer with 
products. Yet, I think the benefits of a free and open Help Viewer, owned by 
nobody except the community who care to use and develop to it, will far out 
weigh this small problem.

If such a Help Viewer existed, I think it would be readily adopted by 
everyone.

So here's the big question. How many of us on this list would actually like 
and be prepared to do something?

-- 
Ask me about the Monkey.

Sean Wheller
Technical Author
sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za
+27-84-854-9408
http://www.inwords.co.za
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