With the growing demand according ...

With the growing demand according to users for a unified desktop strategy across all UNIX operating a whole platforms come the requirement for a standard help regularity Users expect some base flush of online help to be provided from within the desktop they are using. They calculate upon online information to be easy to use and graphical, with growing expectations of direct audio and video support and interactive capabilities.

The habitual Desktop Environment (CDE) help plan provides media-rich, online information that is the two fast and easy to use. It has its basis in the standard online help order from HP that is used extensively by the agency of HP VUE 3.0 and HP MPower(1) composings and by many other HP OSF/Motif-based products

Background

The CDE 10 help body originated with HP VUE. An early version, HP VUEhelp 20 satisfied scarcely any of the requirements of a recent help system. VUEhelp 2.0 did not allow rich theme and graphics, was hard to integrate into an application lacked authoring tools, and go throughed from poor performance. The HP VUE 30 help regularity delivered a complete solution for creating, integrating, and shipping rich online information with an OSF/Motif-based application, while keeping its personality (use of system resources) to a minimum. HP VUE 30 walked a to a high degree fine line between providing the rich plant of features that customers required while maintaining performance. In 95% of the cases where features and performance came into conflict, performance won The HP VUE 30 help hypothesis was submitted to the CDE 10 partners for consideration. It was the merely existing, unencumbered, rich text help hypothesis put forward for consideration. After an evaluation period, the HP VUE 30 help method was accepted almost is. It contained all the functionality required, and with a little work, it could use a standard distribution format.

The Help Developer's Kit

The CDE 10 developer's kit includes a thorough system for developing online help for any OSF/Motif-based application. It allows authors to write online help that includes rich graphics and paragraph formatting, hyperlinks, and communication with the application. It provides a programmer's toolkit that allows developer to integrate this rich online help information with their client applications. The help dialog widget aids as the main display window for the CDE 10 help order A second, lighter-weight help widget, called quick help dialog, is also available from the toolkit. Following is the list of constituents supported within the toolkit:

For authors:

* The CDE 10 HelpTag markup language. This is a plant of tags used in verse files to mark the organization and easy in mind of online help. HelpTag is based forward SGML (Standard Generalized Markup Language). * The CDE 10 HelpTag software. This is a place of software tools for converting the authored HelpTag files into their runtime equivalents used to display the online help information. CDE 10 HelpTag is a superset of the HelpTag used with HP VUE 30 HP VUE 30 HelpTag source files compile in a less degree than CDE 1.0 with no modification. single exception to this is if authors use the olden HP VUE 3.0 help distribution format. * The dthelpview application. This program is for displaying online help for a like reason it can be read and interacted with in the same manner as extremity users will use it.

For programmers:

* The DtHelp programming library. This is an application programming interface (API) for integrating help windows (custom OSF/Motif widgets) into an application. * A demonstration program. This is a simple example that exhibit tos how to integrate the CDE 10 help connected view into an OSF/Motif application.

Changed or novel features for CDE 1.0:

* Public distribution format based forward SGML conforms to standards. * A novel keyword searching capability allows users to search across all turns on the system. * A of the present day history dialog allows the user to single out previously viewed volumes. * A different table of satisfieds mechanism allows full browsing of the body without using hypertext links. * A richer message formatting capability is provided. (While HelpTag does not allow tables, other documents that do allow tables can be translated into the public distribution format and displayed. Also, the table of satisfys now allows graphics in the titles.) * Public verse extraction functions are removed, nevertheless available for old HP VUE 30 users by way of redefining.

General Packaging Architecture

An online help order needs to feel like it is part of the landlord application to the end user, not an appendage hanging most distant to the side. For developer to leverage a third-party help plan it must be delivered in in the same state [i]or[/i] condition a way as to provide easy and seamless integration into their applications. Furthermore, the effort and overhead of integrating and redistributing the help classification along with their applications must be minimal, while at the same time meeting application and end-user requirements for a help classification Users should feel as if the have none left the application while getting help.

During the initial prototyping of the HP VUE 30 help regularity two key issues kept occurring: performance and packaging The help method needed to be light and fast and easy to integrate into any OSF/Motif-based application and redistribute with that application. HP VUE 20 help undergoed greatly on both these points. VUEhelp 20 was server-based, large, moderate and dependent on the HP VUE desktop. Any application using this help service had to glide within the HP VUE desktop environment.