Re: Need Help with Help
Re: Need Help with Help
- Subject: Re: Need Help with Help
- From: François Frisch <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 11:16:02 -0700
>
Hi,
>
>
Glad you found the WWDC session at least a little helpful.
>
>
Regarding whether or not your .help bundle will break -- the fact that
>
it's not supported, but that as you note, it works in some cases, means
>
that we cannot support you if it does break, and make no claims about
>
how broken or not this feature is.
Great! and Apple software uses this feature...
>
If you choose to take the risk of
>
doing something that's not supported, you won't be the first, but it
>
just means that it's your risk to take.
>
>
Furthermore, there are three things to consider if you choose the .help
>
bundle route:
>
>
1) You won't get the per-user Help feature if you install your .help
>
bundle into /Library/Documentation/Help/, as I assume you plan to.
>
Everybody who runs Help Viewer on that system will see that Help
>
content, even if they don't have access/privileges to run your
>
application.
I was planning on putting it in the application package. I know you think it
doesn't make sense as it's already in a package but that's how we managed to
make it work. Is that a problem?
>
>
2) You risk orphaning your help content if the user wants to uninstall
>
your application.
>
>
3) If you install your .help bundle into /Library/Documentation/Help,
>
you break the rules of being able to drag-install. You're going to need
>
an installer that can authenticate to obtain admin privileges to write
>
files into /Library/Documentation/Help.
Don't get me started with supposedly supported authentication in
Cocoa/java...
>
>
--Jessica
>
>
>
On Thursday, August 2, 2001, at 05:37 PM, Frangois Frisch wrote:
>
>
>> First off, speaking for many of the Apple folks who watch and answer
>
>> questions on lists like this one, we do understand the frustration
>
>> surrounding a lack of documentation, out-dated documentation, or
>
>> erroneous documentation. I do my best to review all Apple Help docs for
>
>> accuracy, but that said, I realize there are errors and gaps. I'm sure
>
>> the same is true for other engineers with responsible for other
>
>> technologies. Have you checked out the latest draft of the canonical
>
>> Apple Help documentation, though? Again, it's located at
>
>> <http://developer.apple.com/macos/help.html>, under the Apple Help
>
>> Documentation link. We've been working on it.
>
>
>
> Thank you for all the work.
>
>
>
>>
>
>> Next, on the topic of .help bundles, it's not that we're trying to
>
>> prevent you from using any cool feature, but most developers,
>
>> especially
>
>> Cocoa developers, won't need to use these bundles, and for those who do
>
>> need them, we'd like to do some additional qualification before
>
>> claiming
>
>> to support them. The reason most developers don't even need .help
>
>> bundles is because all they do is allow for you to ship multiple
>
>> localizations of a help book. If you have a bundled application, you
>
>> can
>
>> just stick your standard (non-bundled) help book into your bundled app,
>
>> and you'll have that same level of functionality.
>
>
>
> The help is working as a bundle. All the targets are setup etc... So I'd
>
> rather not throw everything away and spend more time doing so. Is it
>
> going
>
> to break? There are plenty of .help bundles being used by Apple and
>
> others
>
> in various places so I don't understand the problem.
>
>
>
>> I'm sorry that you spent time organizing your help content into a .help
>
>> bundle, but, I don't think it should take too long to un-bundle it.
>
>> Generally, whatever is in your English.lproj can just be moved out of
>
>> there, and put into a "My App Help" folder, which is then put into the
>
>> Resources/ area of your application's bundle. Do the same with your
>
>> other localizations, placing them into the appropriate .lrpoj
>
>> directories inside of your application's bundle.
>
>>
>
>> If you have access to, or plan to get access to, the WWDC 2001 videos,
>
>> check out session #125, which was all about Apple Help. The first half
>
>> or so of the presentation discussed the authoring side of Apple Help,
>
>> and the second half was given by me, and discussed how to access your
>
>> help from your application (including how to successfully set up your
>
>> Info.plist, etc.).
>
>
>
> wasn't online when we did our help + takes 45 minutes to get what could
>
> be
>
> ten lines of help. Enjoyed watching TV for a bit though (I don't have
>
> one).
>
> However there was something which I found no where else and that was
>
> that
>
> the Help Indexer is in the CarbonLib SDK... not obvious.
>
>
>
> Thanks again
>
>
>
> Francois
>
>
>
>>
>
>> Hope this information is helpful.
>
>>
>
>> --Jessica
>
>> Technical Lead, Apple Help
>
>>
>
>>
>
>>
>
>>
>
>>
>
>> On Wednesday, August 1, 2001, at 03:41 PM, Frangois Frisch wrote:
>
>>
>
>>>> Also wanted to second Dave's assertion that .help bundles aren't
>
>>>> really
>
>>>> for public consumption.
>
>>>
>
>>>
>
>>> Can you expand on this? What are the problems with using it?
>
>>>
>
>>> To judge by the state of the documentation Apple recommends not to use
>
>>> any
>
>>> help at all. It's getting tedious to work for days trying to make
>
>>> undocumented things to work only to be told by Apple afterwards that
>
>>> it
>
>>> shouldn't of been done that way after all.
>
>>> Personally I don't want any new features, I don't care how fast my
>
>>> application load or any thing else. I just want to be able to
>
>>> understand
>
>>> what I've got now on my hard drive.
>
>>>
>
>>> Francois
>
>>> _______________________________________________
>
>>> cocoa-dev mailing list
>
>>> email@hidden
>
>>> http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/cocoa-dev
>
>> _______________________________________________
>
>> cocoa-dev mailing list
>
>> email@hidden
>
>> http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/cocoa-dev
>
> _______________________________________________
>
> cocoa-dev mailing list
>
> email@hidden
>
> http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/cocoa-dev
>
_______________________________________________
>
cocoa-dev mailing list
>
email@hidden
>
http://www.lists.apple.com/mailman/listinfo/cocoa-dev