Re: The life of WinHelp

["Huber, Mike" <mrhuber -at- SOFTWARE -dot- ROCKWELL -dot- COM>]

Switch when the new features are worth the new hassles.

WinHelp works, and will be shipped with upcoming versions of Windows for
the foreseeable future.
HTML Help has some worthwhile features, but is a less mature technology.
As time goes by, WinHelp will look more and more dated, and the newer
help technologies will be more feature-rich and reliable.

I can't tell you when the right time is for your company. Some companies
have made the decision to switch already. The writers in those companies
know their own situation better than I do, so I assume it was the right
decision in those situations. Other companies will probably stick to
WinHelp for several more years. The company where I work does not
consider HTML Help ready for prime time yet. We make industrial
software, so we need very reliable technology. We are using HTML Help
for some internal projects so that we will be ready when the technology
is.


>-----Original Message-----
>From:  Sonja Draeger [SMTP:sdraeger -at- NORMAN -dot- COM -dot- AU]
>Sent:  Tuesday, March 31, 1998 7:12 PM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       The life of WinHelp
>
>I'm curious about when we should switch to HTML Help. Seeings as HTML Help
>is taking over from WinHelp, how long do you think WinHelp will stay around
>for?
>
>I've been told that the release of Office 99 (or whatever it will be called
>by then) will be the milestone when HTML Help becomes mainstream help. Will
>WinHelp completely die after that and not be supported any more?
>