Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!rutgers!ucsd!ucbvax!ISUMVS.BITNET!GG.SPY
From: GG.SPY@ISUMVS.BITNET ("John Hascall")
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: Menu system like help
Message-ID: <8807100828.AA21739@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: 7 Jul 88 13:44:12 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 43

> Date:         Wed, 6 Jul 88 16:42:44 MDT
> Sender:       INFO-VAX Discussion 
> From:         Michael Joe Walters 
> 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
>
>