Interesting Reply to JavaHelp or WebHelp

[Manjeet Singh <msingh -at- scort -dot- com>]

Hi,
I got this very interesting reply from Tim Merrick.
Manjeet
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For JavaHelp, users must install the JavaHelp software on their systems
or
have access to it via a network. They also must have the JVM and JRE
(Java
Runtime Environment). Because your software application is written in
Java,
I'm sure your developers are already packaging the JRE. Depending on the
platform, the JRE can be a very large file. In my experience, the JVM
(or
the Microsoft Virtual Machine if you choose to use that) is a relatively
small file. So it's not much of a burden to the user. 

Because your application is written in Java, I'd recommend taking a
serious
look at implementing JavaHelp. As far as using WWP, be careful. To my
knowledge, WWP presently supports only JavaHelp 1.0, which has some
significant bugs, including no support for printing topics from the
JavaHelp
system. JavaHelp 1.1 is now available. It, too, has some bugs, but it is
much better than 1.0.

As for WebHelp, it is proprietary to Blue Sky Software, the makers of
RoboHelp. I'd be cautious about committing myself to that scenario. Yes,
JavaHelp is proprietary to Sun, but it is a part of Sun's overall Java
offering. That technology is here to stay. Will WebHelp be around in a
few
years? That's difficult to say.
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