| 2.2. MS' help systems | ||
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Chapter 2. Introduction | 
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| 2.2. MS' help systems | ||
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Chapter 2. Introduction |
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The table below shows the past, present & future of MS help systems.
Table 2.1. MS' help systems (MVPs, 19??; Far, 19??; Winterhoff, 19??)
| Name | Files/Extension(s) | Based on | Generation | Decompiler(s) | Compiler(s) | Viewer(s) | Specification(s) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| QuickHelp | ??? | ??? | MS-DOS | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| WinHelp | hlp, cnt, gid, fts, ftg, hpj, ann, bmk, WinHlp32.BMK | RTF | Previous. Win95 | helpdeco, winhelpcgi | HC30, HC31, HCP, HCRTF, HCW, MVC, MMVC, WMVC | WinHelp and MultiMedia Viewers, winhelp from wine | helpdeco docs, "The Windows Help File Format" from Dr. Dobbs Journal, Sep/Oct 1993 by Pete Davis |
| HTMLHelp | chm, chi, chq, chs, chw, its, col, hh.dat, hhcolreg.dat, hhp, hhc, hhk, hhs, stp | HTML | Current. Win98 - WinXP | chmdeco, chmlib, chmtools, istorage, HHA/HHC/HHW, HH | HHA/HHC/HHW, hhm (not yet) | HH, xCHM, arCHMage, msits kio slave, chmviewer, GnoCHM, chmsee | This document, ITSF format |
| MS Help 2 | HxS, HxI, HxC, HxF, HxT, HxK, HxE, HxV, HxA | HTML | VS.net | open convert lit ;) (modifications needed) | hxcomp | dox | ITOLITLS format, convert lit source code |
| Longhorn Help aka Tréshelp | ??? | ??? | Next. Windows Longhorn. | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
| Help and Support Center (HSC) | ??? | ??? | Embrace & extend. WinXP | ??? | ??? | ??? | ??? |
Table 2.2. More info on MS' help systems (MVPs, 19??; Far, 19??; Winterhoff, 19??)
| Name | More info |
|---|---|
| QuickHelp | Back in the day of MS command lines before I was old enough to reach the keyboard. |
| WinHelp | This had some features (good & bad) not yet present in HTML Help; annotation, weird compression & searching, nasty RTF and a bit of a clunky UI. |
| HTMLHelp | The current generation of MS' help systems. Many of the features are not implemented in either the viewer, compiler, GUI authoring tools or a combination of all three. It is amazing what passes for 1.0 these days. |
| MS Help 2 | This would have been the finished version of HTML Help. Microsoft has decided not to release it, and instead focus on the help system for Windows Longhorn. |
| Help and Support Center (HSC) | An effort to integrate all help into one location (not unlike Unix man pages in motives). |
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| Chapter 2. Introduction |  |
2.3. HTML Help |