> The two efforts may not be entirely compatible because
> Microsoft's new HTMLHelp engine blends HTML with existing
> Windows Help technology, while Netscape's does not.
> Netscape officials said that they were willing to discuss
> the technologies with Microsoft in hopes of creating a
> standard, but so far the companies seem to be traveling
> on parallel but separate paths.
> for NetHelp to work, ISVs must bundle or license Navigator
> Microsoft's HTMLHelp engine bridges the gap between HTML
> and Help technologies
There are really only minor technical concerns here; peace would be a good
idea. part of the split is that MS seems to be thinking of using declarative
new tags/attrs in HTML to do index markup, popup defn boxes, etc, and NS is
willing to use NS's JavaScript everywhere.
Rohit
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September 3, 1996 7:15 PM ET
Microsoft, Netscape pursue separate HTML help efforts
By _Michael Moeller_ and _Norvin Leach_
Microsoft Corp. and Netscape Communications Corp. are readying for market
dissimilar HTML help technologies that could result in a technology standards
debate.
Microsoft will unveil its new HTMLHelp engine on Sept. 23. Netscape,
meanwhile, is currently beta testing its NetHelp engine, an outgrowth of work
it did to create its own help system for Navigator 3.0.
The two efforts may not be entirely compatible because Microsoft's new
HTMLHelp engine blends HTML with existing Windows Help technology, while
Netscape's does not.
Microsoft will demonstrate its product publicly for the first time at the
independently sponsored HTML Help JumpStart Conference in Seattle. Netscape
will demonstrate NetHelp at the conference as well.
Netscape officials said that they were willing to discuss the technologies
with Microsoft in hopes of creating a standard, but so far the companies seem
to be traveling on parallel but separate paths.
Microsoft's HTMLHelp engine bridges the gap between HTML and Help
technologies, so that Windows Help files resemble HTML pages.
By comparison, Netscape's NetHelp SDK, currently in beta testing, is part of
the Netscape ONE SDK and enables any application to use Netscape Navigator to
display help information.
However, for NetHelp to work, ISVs must bundle or license Navigator.
Netscape's technology has the benefit of being cross-platform, although
Microsoft's technology may have the edge because of its large installed base.
Scott Boggan, senior online help developer at Walker Richer Quinn, a Seattle
developer, said that, at the moment, Microsoft's solution looks better than
Netscape's.
"They have full-text searching, keywords, and windowing. By comparison,
Netscape's solution looks fairly rudimentary. It's cross-platform, but it's
just not compelling to ISVs," Boggan said.
Currently, NetHelp supports windowing capabilities through the use of
JavaScript and other Navigator APIs, and the company is currently in
negotiations with several search engine vendors to add context search and
keyword searching capabilities to NetHelp.
One issue that Help developers will have to face, no matter where the
technology goes, is migration from existing Help files.
Microsoft has not specified how this will work, but users said that migration
is a critical issue. Robert Baker, software engineer at RWD Technologies
Inc., a consulting firm in Columbia, Md., said, "We've invested a lot in Help
files for our software. We're watching this very closely to see what we need
to do to move over to the new system."
Baker's company uses Microsoft's Help engine in most products but continues
to use Netscape software on its Macintosh boxes.