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╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗ ║ ║ ║ ISoft D&M ║ ║ P.O.Box 5517 ║ ║ Coralville IA 52241 ║ ║ U.S.A ║ ║ ║ ╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝ ******************************************************************************* * HELPC Help Engine Technical specification and compiler user guide * * LAST UPDATE - Sep. 27, 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. This document describes the HLPDK language syntax, HELPC compiler operation and the native databases structure. ******************************************************************************* * 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 [/NT:topic-table-name] [/NL:link-table-name] [/ND:data-file-name] [/NK:keywords-table-name] [/D:conditional-define] [/ED=P|C|+] [/EL=x] [/R-] [/ST-] [/CS+] [/EP+] [/WD-][/RM-] [/W+] [/W30] [/W31] [TH+] [/QH+] [/TV+] [/PH+] [/XD+] [/PX+] [/MT+] [/OS2] [/TXT] [/RTF] 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-reference 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. The /ST switch defines if the topic name defined in the .TOPIC command can include embedded spaces. By default this switch is set to /ST- (No embedded spaces). The /CS switch turns Topics and Links case sensitivity to ON. Use this switch with care - Only if you must have a lower/mixed case index in THELP or POPHELP use this switch. Notice that help databases that compile fine with case sensitivity set to off, might fail to do so in case sensitivity on. By default this switch is set to off (-). The /XD switch generates code to the MDVXHELP help compiler, available free in the file DVXHLP10.ZIP on the Internet. When this switch is given, a set of cover and section files is generated, as well as a response file that should be used to compile the help database. The /OS2 switch generates IPF source code. You must compile the generated code with IPFC, from within an OS/2 session (window or full screen). The /WD switch controls Warning Display. By default Warning Display is On, if you do not want to see the Warnings issued by the compiler when a topic name or link are found to be incompatible with the target source, and helpC translate them to be syntax compatible with the target. Use the /TXT switch to create a text file document from your .HDF source. With this feature you can create on-line help and printed documentation from the same source!. Use the /RTF switch to create a word-processor ready RTF file, import this file (and update the fields e.g.- F9 in WinWord) to create a professional formatted documentation from the same source code!. The /RM- switch uses disk cross-reference report tables. Usage of this option will allow the creation of cross-reference report for huge databases. This options will slow the creation of reports, use it only for databases so big that the report can not be generated using memory tables. The /ED= switch creates the external references (if ant are defined) in one of the following formats : /ED=P (Default) creates the external definitions in a PASCAL unit, /ED=C creates the external definitions in a C header file, and /ED=+ creates a C++ header file. The /EL= switch sets the Error Level used. This switch can be overridden by the .ERRORLEVEL statement. The acceptable error levels are : 0 No Check - (Default) - No action is taken. 1 Trap - The link is replaced to a special topic named ERROR. 2 Strip - The link is replaced by the Text part only. 3 Delete - The text and link parts are deleted. 9 Abort - helpC will abort with an error message, indicating the line number. Please refer to the Exception Handling section below about helpC error processing. ******************************************************************************* * Command Line * ******************************************************************************* The compiler switches are defined on the command line. These switches can be placed before and after the source file name. The compiler will look for a file named HELPC.CFG in the current directory, and process it before any command line switches are processed. Switches on the command line will over-ride switches set before them, on the command line or in one of the response options file. Response option files can be specified by prefixing their name with a @ sign. Examples : If our HELPC.CFG file, in the current directory is : /W31 /R- And we compile using HELPC HELPDEMO The helpdemo.hdf file will be compiled, with the target set to winHelp 3.1 and no cross-reference report. Compile using HELPC HELPDEMO /r+ Will create winHelp 3.1 sources, but a report will be generated. Compile using HELPC /w- HELPDEMO Will generate native format help database, no report is generated. If we have a file called MYSWITCH.CFG with the following lines : /TH+ /ST- /CS+ And we compile using HELPC @MYSWITCH.CFG HELPDEMO A THELP source, using Long Topic Names, with case sensitivity will be generated, no cross reference report is generated. (HELPC.CFG contains /r-) ******************************************************************************* * Help Definition Format * ******************************************************************************* The help definition file format is as follows : remarks ... remarks ... .ENTRY topic-name [.TITLE optional title for topic] [.TITLEATTR paragraph attributes] [.KEYWORDS optional keywords for topic] [.GROUPS group1 [group2 ..]] 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 [.KEYWORDS keyword1 keyword2 ..] [.GROUPS group3 [group2 ..]] [.PARAGRAPH [paragraph attributes]] topic 2 text and link reference .. topic 2 text and link reference .. topic 2 text and link reference .. [.END-PARAGRAPH] additional topic2 text ... .END-ENTRY .POPUP popup-name [.TITLE optional title for popup] definition for some reference ... .END-POPUP 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 respectively. An equivalent pair of keywords are .TOP and .ENDTOP . You can use .EXT-TOPIC instead of .TOPIC/.ENTRY etc.. - topics created with that statement are the same as regular topics, only - an external reference is created for them to be linked to a PASCAL/C/C++ program. 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. The .TITLEATTR keyword is used to describe the title text attributes. The syntax is the same as the .PARAGRAPH text attributes. Please refer to the Text Attributes section below for further discussion of the optional paragraph attributes. 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.). 5. The Optional .PARAGRAPH and .END-PARAGRAPH commands in the help topic text, specify the start and the end of a paragraph. This feature is currently supported only for winHelp, RTF and IPF sources. This feature is important if you want to create long paragraphs that will wrap correctly when a user resizes the help window. Please refer to the Text Attributes section below for further discussion of the optional paragraph attributes. The .PAR and .ENDPAR keywords can be used instead of the .PARAGRAPH and .END-PARAGRAPH keywords. 6. When a .PARAGRAPH is issued, a .END-PARAGRAPH MUST be specified at the end of the paragraph. These commands must appear as the first words in a line. The text after the .PARAGRAPH command is NOT part of the text of the help topic. 7. The optional .KEYWORDS command can appear after the .TITLE command (If there is one), or the .TOPIC header (otherwise), Use this command to help the user search for sets of topics that are connected to a specific keyword. The syntax of this command is : .KEYWORDS keyword-1 keyword-2 ... 8. .POPUP and .END-POPUP (or .ENDPOP) are used to define popup topics that are displayed on the same screen as the original topic that includes the link to them. Popup entries allow the user to consult a glossary, and not lose the topic he was reading. Popups are supported in the winHelp, OS2 IPF, Native PX and Native Mem formats. In the other formats Popups are used as standard topics. 9. In the Text target .POPUP entries will be automatically included in a Glossary file that you can add as an appendix to your documentation. 10. The .GROUPS statement associate a topic with several groups, you can create topics with menus to groups of other topics using the statement ".INSERT GROUP group-name" in your topic text. Please refer to the Groups section of this document for additional discussion of this function. Additional commands include : .TEXTCOLOR, .LINKCOLOR and .LINKHIGH - VGA colors of text and links in normal and high (selected) states in the native help format. The syntax of these commands is : .TEXTCOLOR w or .LINKCOLOR x or .LINKHIGH y Where w, x and y are the color of the text/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. .INCLUDE is not supported in the middle of a topic. 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. Use the .INSERT CODE statement to insert target code that will not be translated by helpC. helpC will send un-translated code to the output target until a .END-CODE statement is found. For example - creating a small table in winHelp format : .. normal code .ifdef windows .insert code \pard{\tab column1\tab column2\tab column3}\par \pard{\par blabla\tab blabli ..}\par .end-code .endif 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. The .PCFONT command is used to define a font that has the standard PC character set (Terminal - in windows). If you convert a text based database that uses the PC's special characters, use this command to set the default font. This command has no effect on targets that are different from the targets mentioned before. Text targets : The .PAGELENGTH and .PAGEWIDTH statements set the printed page length in rows, and width in columns. The syntax is .PAGELENGTH xx or .PAGEWIDTH yy . Use the .SETFONT command to change or add fonts to the font palette, The syntax is : .SETFONT font-number 'Font-Name-In-The-Target-Language'. If for example we would like to change font number 3 in the windows target to be a font X of family Y we would write : .SETFONT 3 'Y X' A good way to find in RTF how to describe the font you are interested in, is to open a new document in your word processor, write a line in the font you are interested, save the document as a RTF document, and see the way the word processor described the font in the RTF font table. Use the .TITLEDEFAULTS statement to set the default text attributes of the topics titles in the help database. These defaults can be over-ridden with the .TITLEATTR statement in the topic definition. Please refer to the Text Attributes section below for discussion of paragraph text attributes. Use the .ATTRDEFAULTS statement to set the default text attributes of paragraph text in the database. Please refer to the Text Attributes section below. Use the .ERRORLEVEL command to set the error level. The syntax is .ERRORLEVEL x where x is one of the following : 0 No Check - (Default) - No action is taken. 1 Trap - The link is replaced to a special topic named ERROR. 2 Strip - The link is replaced by the Text part only. 3 Delete - The text and link parts are deleted. 9 Abort - helpC will abort with an error message, indicating the line number. Please refer to the Exception Handling section below about helpC error processing. Use the .ALIAS command to substitute a popup/topic name with another name. The syntax is .ALIAS newname origname. Whenever a newname link is found, the alias of origname is used. This can be very useful when you want to give multiple names to a topic, or when HLPDK source is the target of an incremental compiler. ******************************************************************************* * Conditional Defines * ******************************************************************************* The helpC compiler supports conditional define directives that allow you to tailor your source according to define symbols that are known to the compiler. You can use the .ifdef, .ifndef, .else and .endif directives to test the target of your compile and do different things according to this target. If for example you have a Windows bitmap you want to include in your generated RTF file, when you compile to winHelp format, but, you would like to use a statement in other targets that do not support graphics, you could do the following : .ifdef windows some text {\bmc mybmp.bmp} some more text .else some text AND STATEMENT HERE some more text .endif When the compiler will generate the code, the RTF command \bmc will be inserted in the output of the compiler for windows targets (/W30, /W31), and a simple text statement will be inserted otherwise. The conditional directives supported are : .ifdef SYMBOL - Compile code only if SYMBOL is defined. .ifndef SYMBOL - Compile code only if SYMBOL is NOT defined. .endif - Any .ifdef/.ifndef should be terminated by a .endif . .else - Reverse the previous .ifdef/.ifndef The following SYMBOLS are automatically defined by the compiler : Symbol When Defined ------ ------------ DEF /PX+ W31 /W31 W30 /W30 THS /TH+ QHS /QH+ TVH /TV+ PHS /PH+ DVX /XD+ MEM /MT+ OS2 /OS2 TXT /TXT WINDOWS /W30, /W31 THELP /TH+ QUICKHELP /QH+ TVHC /TV+ NATIVEPARADOX /PX+ POPHELP /PH+ DESQVIEW/X /XD+ NATIVEMEMORY /MT+ VERx.y When Compiling with helpC Vx.y NATIVE /PX+, /MT+ DOCUMENT /TXT, /RTF You can define your own conditional defines on the command line using the /D: switch of helpC. e.g. Source : ... some text .. .ifdef mydef Special Text for mydef situation .endif ... more text and you compile using HELPC /D:MYDEF the special text will be included. ******************************************************************************* * Groups * ******************************************************************************* Topics can be associated to groups using the .GROUPS statement in the topic heading. Menus to these groups can later be created by using the command .INSERT GROUP group-name in the topic text. An example will clarify the use of this function : Let us assume that we have a car's collectors database, where the description of each car is a topic. We would like to present a hierarchy to the user that looks like that : Overview Screen | +--------- Cars by Country | | | +------------ U.S.A ... List of cars manufactured in U.S.A | +------------ U.K. | +------------ Italy | +--------- Cars by Maker | | | +------------ Alfa-Romeo ... List of Alfa-Romeo models | +------------ GM | +------------ Mazda | +--------- Cars by type | +------------ 4x4 & Jeeps +------------ Sport Cars +------------ Family Sedans We will create group references in the topics using the .GROUPS statement, The Alfa Romeo Spider 2000 topic will look like : .topic alfa_romeo_spider_2000 .title Alfa Romeo Spider 2000 .keywords alfa spider convertible sport classic .groups Italian alfa sport The Alfa Romeo ... .end-topic The Italian Cars Directory topic will be : .topic Italy_directory .title Italian Cars Directory .keywords directory Cars Manufactured in Italy : .insert group Italian .end-topic If our database includes 3 cars that have a reference to the Italian group this will be the equivalent of writing : .topic Italy_directory .title Italian Cars Directory .keywords directory Cars Manufactured in Italy : ~Alfa Romeo Spider 2000~alfa_romeo_spider_2000~ ~Ferrari 308 GTS~Ferrari_308_gts~ ~Fiat Uno 70S~fiat_uno_70s~ .end-topic ******************************************************************************* * Text Attributes * ******************************************************************************* Topic's text can receive visual attributes such as a font, size, bold, italic etc.. by using the paragraph attributes on the .PARAGRAPH (.par) line. Text attributes are currently supported in the winHelp and RTF targets. The attributes that can be applied to text are : Font - The font the text will be displayed in. Bold - The text is displayed in bold characters. Italic - The text is displayed in italic characters. Underline - The text is displayed in underline characters. Size - The size of the font. Box - The paragraph can be contained in a box. Align - The paragraph can be aligned. Color - The text foreground color. The syntax is : .PARAGRAPH [attr1 attr1-parameters [attr2 attr2-parameters [..] ]] The allowed parameters to attributes are : 1. FONT font-number-in-font-palette : The font number in the font palette, there is a standard font palette for winHelp and RTF targets that include the following fonts : 0 : Times Roman (roman Tms Rmn) 1 : Symbol (decor Symbol) 2 : Helvetica (swiss Helv) 3 : LinePrinter (modern LinePrinter) 4 : Terminal (roman Terminal) 5 : Times New Roman (roman Times New Roman) 6 : Arial (swiss Arial) 7 : CG Times (WN) (roman CG Times (WN)) 8 : Courier (modern Courier) 9 : Modern (modern Modern) 10 : Script (script Script) 11 : Univers (WN) (swiss Univers (WN)) 12 : Wingdings (nil Wingdings) 13 : MS Sans Serif (swiss MS Sans Serif) 2. BOLD ON|OFF - Set bold mode to on/off. 3. ITALIC ON|OFF - Set italic mode to on/off. 4. UNDERLINE ON|OFF - Set underline mode on/off. 5. SIZE font-size - Set the size of the font. 6. BOX NONE|NORMAL|THICK|SHADOW|DOUBLE - Print paragraph in a box which has one of the described borders : NONE is no border at all. 7. ALIGN LEFT|RIGHT|CENTER|JUSTIFY - Print the text in the paragraph aligned to one of the sides, the center or justified in the paragraph. 8. COLOR color-number-in-color-palette - The numbers are the same numbers used for DOS native systems and described in the help definition format section above, regarding the .LINKCOLOR, .TEXTCOLOR and .LINKHIGH statements. Example : .PAR BOX SHADOW FONT 13 BOLD ... some text here .. .ENDPAR Will display the paragraph in a shadow bordered box, using font 13 in the palette (MS Sans Serif assuming that the original palette is used) with bold characters. ******************************************************************************* * Exception Handling * ******************************************************************************* helpC provides mechanism to handle link exceptions. An exception is a link to an identifier that is not defined as a topic or popup. In order to help you find these errors helpC contains the cross reference report that can be produced using the /R+ switch. You can browse the HELPC.LST file generated by helpC if a cross reference report is generated, and search for the string ERROR that describes undefined links. helpC provides additional exception handling facilities. When an error is found during compile helpC can perform on of the following actions : 0: No Check - Default - helpC does not do anything. The link is passed as is to the target. The target help engine/compiler will handle the exception as it is implemented. 1: Trap - helpC will replace the link key with the key ERROR. It is the responsibility of the help database author to provide such a topic/popup. 2: Strip - helpC will pass the text of the link to the target with no link support. The text will appear as normal text. 3: Delete - Both the text and the link will be deleted and will not appear in the target. 9: Abort - helpC will abort, with an error message, and the line the link is defined. This mode is recommended when you are debugging your help database. You can set the error level using the following techniques : - Use the /EL=x switch on the helpC command line. - Use the .ERRORLEVEL x .HDF statement. Important Points : 1. When errorLevel = 0 (default) no topic database is created during pass 1, if you set .errorlevel somewhere in your source, after some topics/popups have been defined, these topics will not be in the symbol table created by helpC and will be considered an exception!. ******************************************************************************* * Native Databases Structure * ******************************************************************************* Each help database is built of 5 components : 1. Help Data File - this file contains the raw text data. 2. Topic Index - a database table that contains the topic names, and the references to the topics in the Data File. 3. Links Index - a database table that contains the list of links defined for each topic, and positional data. 4. Keywords Index - a database table that contains the list of keywords, and the topics that have these keywords. 5. 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. Version 5.0+ has a new entry in the help set file, database have to be re-compiled, or the value 128 should be added in the last line of the help set file, and the version number should be changed to 5.0. Version 6.0+ has added the keyword support - a new database table is added, and a new set format is defined. Help databases will have to be re-compiled for Native targets. In Version 7.0 the title field has been expanded once more - to 70 characters. Help databases will have to be re-compiled. In Version 8.0 the TTYPE field was added to the Topics database. Old databases will 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 .. ******************************************************************************* * Topic Index Format * ******************************************************************************* The topic index table format is as follows : TOPIC - 40 characters 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 - longint (long) field that contains the length (in bytes) of the text data of the topic. TITLE - 70 characters string key - the title of the topic. TTYPE - 1 character - topic type. Currently supported types are : 'T' = Topic. 'P' = Popup. ******************************************************************************* * 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 - 70 characters string field - the text to display on the line. ******************************************************************************* * Keywords Index Table * ******************************************************************************* The keywords index table format is as follows : KEYWORD - 40 characters string key - the keyword. TOPIC - 40 characters string key - the topic name that this keyword is assigned to. Notice - the database will include a row for each keyword, that has the TOPIC field blank. This is used to display the first list of keywords, that if chosen, will display the 2nd list of topics that have the chosen keyword in their .KEYWORDS definition. ******************************************************************************* * Set File Format * ******************************************************************************* The set file is a text file that contains one entry in each line, using the following format : help-database-engine version-of-generating-compiler topic-index-table name links-index-table name keyword-index-table-name help-raw-data-file name number-of-topics length-of-file link-normal-color link-high-color text-normal-color The help-database-engine values available today are DEF=Paradox and MEM=memory Tables. ******************************************************************************* * 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 use the Native Mem Format, compile using the /MT+ switch, and distribute HE.EXE with the .SET, .HDT and .HDX files created. If you generated the Windows (/W30, /W31) help file, you can compile 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) To Generate Help databases for DESQview/X, use the MDVXHELP compiler that can be found on the Internet in the file DVXHLP10.ZIP. Distribute the .INF files that IPFC creates from the .IPF sources generated, if you compile to OS/2. For examples on these compiler's command lines please refer to the quick start section of HLPDK.DOC, or to your compiler's documentation.