Tell Me (and Others)

A few months ago I read some colleagues recommending a tool for building program Help systems. They were talking about a product called “Dr Explain”. At the time, I was deeply involved in building some software, but did stop and do some investigation of Dr Explain. I did not give it much time then and continued on with my project.

Now my project is close to finished, I need to build some specific help system for my clients. I would like to go on-site and deliver some training sessions, but they are thousands of miles away.

Something reminded me of Dr Explain, so I researched it again.

This time I put some more effort into seeing what it was all about.

This time I was very impressed and and found that it was at Version 2 and had a heap of new features.

I am now using it with much success. It saves me significant time over the antiquated professional “help” development software that I have been using for about 7 years.

If you are charged with the task of building documentation for software, then you owe it to yourself to take a peek here.

Download a free working copy here. The free download is suitable for building small help systems. You can then purchase and register your working copy for larger projects. Tell ‘em I sent you!

There has been a bit of a gap in posts here as I have been very busy on several projects, but I am finally seeing some light at the end of the tunnel.

One recent programming task forced me to look more closely at XML. I had to download an XML data file from a SSL server, and analyze it.

I tried with some rudimentary text editors, but upon searching and testing a few purpose built XML editors, I settled on one called xmlBlueprint.

The web site is at www.xmlblueprint.com There you can get a test version that will run on 10 different days… The cost of a license is good value for the product. Enjoy!

Here are a few add-on/utility tools that I find very handy in my programming work.

1: PSPAD

A free and enhanced feature rich text editor available at

www.pspad.com/en/

2: Treepad

With a feeware “Lite” version available, it is handy for storing project details, ToDo lists and a few other details… I use the “Business” version for which you need to pay, but it is a great utility tool for organizing tasks and storing project data. There are other levels so have a look and choose for your self.
Available at www.treepad.com Use it as an organiser, Database or word processor.

3: Remote Control Software:

See Access-Remote-PC for an invaluable tool (not free, around US$50 per server) to connect, control and transfer files to and from remote PCs

JohnG

Why does it always happen that you have a quiet period and then all of a sudden, many clients want urgent changes?
I think this is related to the “caterpillar” effect of traffic on a highway. The vehicles bunch up for a short distance, and then spread out and things flow smoothly for a while.
I need to research the “caterpillar” effect some more, and train my clients to behave

I program mostly using “Clarion For Windows” from softvelocity.

A client today requested, as a matter of urgency, that I add the feature of printing a complex window, that sometimes has a scrolling list box. This would have been a time consuming task (well, about two hours to develop and test).

I recalled seeing a utility tool being announced within some programming forums and in Clarion Magazine. So today I went and bought the template code tool. Within about 20 minutes, I had been able to build the print out report of the screen just as the customer wanted. Wow, he was impressed.

Thanks to Jorge at Huenuleufu Development for building the tool.

Griffo.

Back in Perth and summer has begun. Well, only on the calendar. It is nearly mid december and so far there has only been one day warm enough to stroll down to the beach. Maybe next weekend will be warmer, according to weather forecasters.
In the meantime, I am busy on maintenance on some systems for existing clients, and flat out on a new project (with document generation and storage involving .RTF files, Search and Replace, and generation and storage as .PDFs in an MS-SQL database). All going well so far

John.