Re: HTML Help-- Benefits?

[Jennifer Delmerico <Jennifer -dot- Delmerico -at- TSTNET -dot- COM>]

Colleen McKenna wrote:
>
> I would just echo others with the adage, "If it ain't broke,
> don't fix it."
> WinHelp, despite its quirks, isn't broken. For us, MS HTML
> Help offers no
> advantages.

In response to my HTML-Help query, I received an email from Eileen George
with the following URL (online C/C++ Users Journal) as a source information:

http://www.cuj.com/archive/1608/feature.html

Interestingly, this article begins with,
"Few subsystems needed more help than Windows Help.  Fortunately, Web
technology once again simplifies matters."

It goes on to state that the *major* benefits of HTML-Help are
1. Write once, use everywhere (not necessarily)
2. simplicity (definitely debatable)
3. Information typing (not yet fully functional)

and the *minor* drawbacks are
1. IE4 requirement (not so minor, I'd say)
2. every topic = separate HTML file (makes management difficult)
3. hard to create and manage popup topics (again, not so minor)
4. developer must know HTML

I tend to agree that WinHELP isn't broken (just outdated maybe), but there
are certainly those in the community who would disagree.  I was surprised to
read in this article how vehement some of the disagreement is!

BTW, I will summarize the excellent offlist responses I got to the HTML-Help
question in a day or two.  Thanks to everyone who contributed their opinion
or more information.

********************************
Jennifer Delmerico, Sr. Tech Writer
Transaction Software Technologies, Inc.
770-446-3211
jennifer -dot- delmerico -at- tstnet -dot- com

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