PYM@QUCDNSUR.BITNET (Dr John Pym [Cardiothoracic Surgery]) (07/07/88)
Michael Joe Walters <mwalters@UWYO.BITNET> writes: > I need to set up a system where the user can make choices and proceed down the > tree to find the document they are interested in. The VMS Help facility is a > good example of the type of system I am looking for. > Can the VMS Help facility be used as a separate process? This project should > not be part of the Help system. I want the user to be able to type XYZ and get > into the system just like Help gets you into the help system. > Are there better systems you would suggest I look at? I am looking for free > software, but would consider a commercial package. This can easily be achieved using VMS HELP - why re-invent the wheel by writing a heirarchical text database when d i g i t a l has already done it for you? Format your documents in help file format (remember only 74 characters per line). You can add the appropriate escape sequences to make it all pretty e.g. reverse video, double height/width, graphics mode for simple diagrams and flow charts, etc. Then build the modules into your own help library and define a symbol to point to it - such as $ XYZ :== HELP/LIBRARY=Dxxx:[WHEREVER]YOURHELP.HLB remembering the full device and directory specification (defaults to SYS$HELP). We have implemented a drug and medical procedural database for resident staff in our large multidisciplinary intensive care unit using just this method. It is, however, an obvious choice for any heirarchical text database which requires modular addition and revision - and it's cheap and easy to implement. As an aside, an excellent online help system has been released by Sun for their new 386i workstation. It is hypertext-like - just click the mouse on an underlined word in the text and you go off to help information on that particular key word. I understand that this will be added to upcoming versions of Sun OS for other processors. This feature would be useful in VMS help - IS ANYONE FROM VMS DEVELOPMENT LISTENING? John Pym BITNET: PYM@QUCDNSUR Real life: Dr. John Pym Department of Surgery Telephone (613)549-3898 - office Queen's University (613)548-4879 - home Kingston. Ontario (613)541-7792 - cellular CANADA. K7L 2V6
GG.SPY@ISUMVS.BITNET ("John Hascall") (07/07/88)
> Date: Wed, 6 Jul 88 16:42:44 MDT > Sender: INFO-VAX Discussion <INFO-VAX@UBVM> > From: Michael Joe Walters <mwalters@UWYO.BITNET> > Subject: Menu system like help > > I need to set up a system where the user can make choices and proceed down the > tree to find the document they are interested in. The VMS Help facility is a > good example of the type of system I am looking for. > > Can the VMS Help facility be used as a separate process? This project should > not be part of the Help system. I want the user to be able to type XYZ and get > into the system just like Help gets you into the help system. > You can call the VMS help facility with your own help library (simple to create). You can either do it in DCL "XYZ :== HELP @MYHELPLIBRARY" or if you want more flexibility you can write a program--the routine you want to call is LBR$OUTPUT_HELP (see "VAX/VMS Utility Routines Reference Manual" (Volume 8A of the orange books), pages LBR-50 through LBR-54). To create your own help library: 1) LIBRARY/CREATE/HELP name-of-my-library.HLB 2) then create a help file for each major (top-level) topic 3) LIBRARY/INSERT name-of-my-library.HLB name-of-my-help-file.HLP (for each file) For an example of the format of a help file you can: LIBRARY/OUT=TT:/EXTRACT=ASSIGN SYS$HELP:HELPLIB.HLB which will show you the input for "HELP ASSIGN" John Hascall Iowa State Univ. Computation Center GGUUU@ISUMVS.BITNET -or- GVJPH@VAXD.IASTATE.EDU > Michael Walters > MWalters @ UWYO.BITNET > >
ZSYJKAA@WYOCDC1.BITNET (Jim Kirkpatrick 307 766-5303) (07/07/88)
Well, you can use HELP itself. Refer to the DCL dictionary under the
HELP command and you can see that you can specify your own HELP library;
even typing HELP HELP will point this out. Refer to the LIBRARIAN reference
manual for instructions on how to form and build your own HELP library.
As to your desire to type XYZ to get into it, you could define a symbol
XYZ :== $HELP/qualifiers
in your LOGIN.COM file. If you wanted a particular set of users to have
access to the symbol, it would either need to be in each LOGIN.COM file,
or if they are all in the same group ("group" in the UIC sense of the word)
it is possible to have a system manager define a group-wide LOGIN.COM;
I don't know how far you'd get in asking to have such a symbol added to
the system-wide login file for 2% of the system's users.
P.S. There's VMS experts or near-experts on your floor, the floor below,
and I live on the next floor up; maybe Info-VAX was overkill for asking
this question without first exhausting local options?XRBEO@VPFVM.BITNET (Bruce O'Neel) (07/12/88)
If understand you correctly, you can get away with a $ xyz :== "HELP/LIBRARY=XYZ" do do what you want