[Coco] helpmsg

[L. Curtis Boyle]

Probably the easiest is use a text editor (that can handle fairly large files - VED or SCRED, if you are familiar with either of them, would work). I currently have it in alphabetical order, but that isn’t enforced. You can insert it where every you want; basically, it requires two parts:
1) Add a line with the @ sign as the first character, followed by the name of the program, on a line by itself
2) Add the help description text immediately after that. You can make this a single large line (paragraph), or separate lines, however you want them formatted (remember that some would run it on 32, 40 or 80 column windows, but since this is your private copy, you can format it to your own personal tastes).

Two things I should mention:
1) The next beta (months away yet) would overwrite the HELPMSG file, so you should make a backup copy of your modified one (or at least make a note to add it back in). I am hoping this is the last “overwrite” version;  we did introduce the 2nd blank data hard drive image starting in Beta 5 for users to have a place to keep their own things, so that they don’t get overwritten.

2) There is a distinct possibility the whole HELP system may be changed in Beta 6. Some other users pointed out that a much more versatile HELP system was created in the late 1980’s/early 1990’s. We are going to be testing that system in the next few months, and it has some really nice options (like sub-topics), but I need to find out if it makes the help system too slow, and how much disk space it will take (it make separate files for each command; good for editing, slower for parsing). That won’t be decided until we start testing the new system with a large selection of help files. If it takes far too long to even show the subject list, we may not use it (the help system is used both by the HELP command from the command line, and the <?> option in GShell).


L. Curtis Boyle
curtisboyle at sasktel.net



> On Jul 28, 2020, at 11:07 AM, coco at jechar.ca wrote:
> 
> 
> How do you edit the helpmsg file in /dd/sys to add another
> program. I wrote a help message for attrall but was unable
> to figure out how to add it to /dd/sys/helpmsg
> 
> Charlie
> 
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