Windows Help files

Stan · Post by **Stan** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:32 pm

I have a shareware product that I sell that is windows only (due to the development system, it never will be ported to Mac or Linux). I have been testing it on WINE for about two years and now it almost works with latest version. I want to pass on some info to the makers of the compiler (so mine and other apps will run under wine). One problem I have is that the CHM Help system does not work on Wine (works on Win 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista). Is this a normal Wine problem (I know old style Help files .HLP load)? Thanks for any pointers/info you can give me.

Cheers,
Stan

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Sat Apr 26, 2008 10:38 pm

On Sat, Apr 26, 2008 at 8:32 PM, Stan <[email protected]> wrote:

I have a shareware product that I sell that is windows only
(due to the development system, it never will be ported to
Mac or Linux). I have been testing it on WINE for about two
years and now it almost works with latest version.

Yay!

I want to pass on some info ... the CHM Help system does not work

It does work for some .chm files, I think.
Can you be more specific about what's wrong?
Can you post a link to your app so we can try it?

Thanks,
Dan

herbert langhans · Post by **herbert langhans** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 2:18 am

Hi Stan,
maybe it helps to read the CHM from the Unix-side? http://sourceforge.net/projects/chmviewer/

Cheers
herbs

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:32:51 -0500
"Stan" <[email protected]> wrote:

I have a shareware product that I sell that is windows only (due to the development system, it never will be ported to Mac or Linux). I have been testing it on WINE for about two years and now it almost works with latest version. I want to pass on some info to the makers of the compiler (so mine and other apps will run under wine). One problem I have is that the CHM Help system does not work on Wine (works on Win 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista). Is this a normal Wine problem (I know old style Help files .HLP load)? Thanks for any pointers/info you can give me.

Cheers,
Stan

Marcel W. Wysocki · Post by **Marcel W. Wysocki** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 4:25 am

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:32:51 -0500
"Stan" <[email protected]> wrote:

I have a shareware product that I sell that is windows only (due to the development system, it never will be ported to Mac or Linux).

why not port it using winelib ?

--
Marcel W. Wysocki <[email protected]>
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vitamin · Post by **vitamin** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 10:42 am

Marcel W. Wysocki wrote:On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 22:32:51 -0500
"Stan" <[email protected]> wrote:

I have a shareware product that I sell that is windows only (due to the development system, it never will be ported to Mac or Linux).
why not port it using winelib ?

That's a bad idea. Winelib is not stable enough to be suitable for any real ports.
If you look at such attempts in the past they all ended up in disaster for both users, who couldn't use newer Wine versions and vendors who ended up trying to support multiple incompatible Wine versions.

Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 11:01 am

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 8:42 AM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:

why not port it using winelib ?
That's a bad idea. Winelib is not stable enough to be suitable for any real ports.
If you look at such attempts in the past they all ended up in disaster
for both users, who couldn't use newer Wine versions and vendors
who ended up trying to support multiple incompatible Wine versions.

Wow, for once Vitamin and I kind of agree on something

See the Bricscad case study at http://kegel.com/wine/isv/#case-studies
for details.
- Dan

Marcel W. Wysocki · Post by **Marcel W. Wysocki** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:23 pm

On Sun, 27 Apr 2008 09:00:59 -0700
"Dan Kegel" <[email protected]> wrote:

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 8:42 AM, vitamin <[email protected]> wrote:
why not port it using winelib ?
That's a bad idea. Winelib is not stable enough to be suitable for any real ports.
If you look at such attempts in the past they all ended up in disaster
for both users, who couldn't use newer Wine versions and vendors
who ended up trying to support multiple incompatible Wine versions.
Wow, for once Vitamin and I kind of agree on something

See the Bricscad case study at http://kegel.com/wine/isv/#case-studies
for details.
- Dan

thanks for the infos, til know i thought one could easily port his win32 apps to unix via wineleb as long as you dont use any fancy stuff and stick to standard functions.

is it likely this situation will change anytime soon ?
not that i'd ever develop a win32 app but im just curious

--
Marcel W. Wysocki <[email protected]>
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Dan Kegel · Post by **Dan Kegel** » Sun Apr 27, 2008 3:31 pm

On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 2:21 PM, Marcel W. Wysocki <[email protected]> wrote:

Winelib is not stable enough to be suitable for any real ports.
If you look at such attempts in the past they all ended up in disaster
for both users, who couldn't use newer Wine versions and vendors
who ended up trying to support multiple incompatible Wine versions.
See the Bricscad case study at http://kegel.com/wine/isv/#case-studies
for details.
thanks for the infos, til now i thought one could easily port his win32
apps to unix via wineleb as long as you dont use any fancy stuff and
stick to standard functions.

That's true - you can - but it's better to simply use Wine. Winelib has
surprising properties that will confuse both you and your users unless
you really know what you're doing. Using Wine has significantly fewer
surprises.
And as a bonus you don't have to recompile your app.

is it likely this situation will change anytime soon ?

When the wine protocol is complete, perhaps. That's a long ways off.
- Dan