DESIGN (xvobjects) functions


LIBRARY ROUTINE

xvw_create_help - create a help object

LIBRARY CALL

xvobject xvw_create_help(
   xvobject parent,
   char     *name)

INPUT

OUTPUT

none

RETURN VALUE

The help widget on success, NULL on failure

DESCRIPTION

The help object provides a mechanism for displaying online help pages. Online help pages providing information corresponding to the man page of a software object are automatically generated as *.hlp files; xvroutines will have additional help pages created from scratch, named *.doc (see Chapter 6 of the Toolbox Programmer's Manual for more details).

The largest part of the help object is devoted to a large, scrollable window, in which the help page is displayed. On the top is a label for the help object; on the top right is a "Quit" button that is used to pop down the help object; on the top left is a pulldown menu that may be used to view other online help pages. On the bottom is a label listing the path to the help file being displayed.

The help object will format a help page that contain roff formatting commands before displaying it; alternatively, it can be used to display plain ascii text files as is. The help object may be provided with a path to a particular help file, or a path to a directory in which many help files exist. If the path provided is a path to a directory, the help page displayed by default will be the first one in the directory; if the path provided is a path to a particular file, that file will be displayed. In either case, if other help files (ie, files with names that end in ".doc" or ".hlp") will be accessable from the button on the upper left hand corner of the help object, labelled, "More Help Pages".

The first line in a help file controls the label of the entry in the "More Help Pages" pulldown menu that will cause that help file to be displayed. Such a line reads as follows:
.onlineHelp TOOLBOX "Label To Appear In Menu" ONAME

The word "TOOLBOX" should be replaced with the name of the toolbox, the word "ONAME" should be replaced with the program name, and the label that you would like the user to see when they using the "Other Files" pulldown menu should be entered instead of "Label To Appear In Menu". For example, the first line of the online help page for the "Files" subform of editimage reads:
.onlineHelp ENVISION "Input/Output" EDITIMAGE

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

none

EXAMPLES

none

SIDE EFFECTS

none

RESTRICTIONS

none

MODIFICATION

none

FILES

$DESIGN/objects/library/xvobjects/src/Help.c

SEE ALSO

xvobjects(3)

COPYRIGHT

Copyright (C) 1993 - 1997, Khoral Research, Inc. ("KRI") All rights reserved.