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

Subject: Re: I'm sticking with WinHelp (was Re: WinHelp on Vista - a usefullink)
From: Sean Wheller <sean -at- inwords -dot- co -dot- za>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 10:49:11 +0200

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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Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: I'm sticking with WinHelp (was Re: WinHelp on Vista - a useful link): From: Bill Swallow
Re: I'm sticking with WinHelp (was Re: WinHelp on Vista - a usefullink): From: Gene Kim-Eng

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