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Help 3 @ the PDC

When I last wrote, we had just kicked off our user group tour and the team was just getting going.  Since then, we have staffed all but one position, vetted an architecture and decided on the 'v1.0' set of features for our new help platform.  We also created rich prototypes - nearly end to end.  I've been talking to internal and external customers and partners and everyone agrees - this is going to be cool.  We've been able to keep our design simple and straightforward and used existing technology where we could.  So, when can you see it and when can you learn more!?!?  Well, I'm using this post to both kick off a series of informational posts and to let you know that myself and a few others will be at the PDC next month!  You'll find us at the Windows SDK and MSDN Library booth.  We will also be looking for your feedback there - the first couple hundred responders to our live survey will get some cool swag. Hope to meet you there!

Stay tuned!

 April

 

Published Thursday, September 25, 2008 9:55 PM by AprilR
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Friday, September 26, 2008 1:34 AM by Help 3 @ the PDC : EasyCoded

# Help 3 @ the PDC : EasyCoded

PingBack from http://www.easycoded.com/help-3-the-pdc/

Friday, September 26, 2008 4:20 AM by Michael S.

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

Thanks for sharing April.

Is Help3 only covering help for the SDK/MSDN or is it a general purpose help which is also to be used by third-party developers of other Windows applications?

If not, do you know or can share whom in Microsoft  is responsible for developing the help tools that third-parties can use for building help for thier own applications?

As developer for the Windows platform I believe we seriously need a common up-to-date help format that we can use when developing applications for Windows. Today even Microsoft is using different formats for different applications, e.g. HTML Help (.chm), AP Help (Vista Help), Help 2 (VS Help), Office Help, etc. As far as I know the official format is still HTML Help, which is not really up-to-date. It has security problems, is not Unicode etc.

Thanks for any feedback you may have,

/Michael

Friday, September 26, 2008 1:43 PM by April

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

Hi Michael!  We may not get to that level of redistribution in v1.0 of help 3, however we will by v2.0.  We do want to provide this framework to Windows developers as soon as we can!  Next you'll ask me about timing of these releases, and I can't quite share that yet but will when I can.

April

Monday, October 13, 2008 5:37 AM by Mark R

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

I'm really looking forward to this. Are you going to be running a CTP program?

Sunday, November 23, 2008 8:22 AM by willdean

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

April, is this stuff expected to go into VS10?

I don't know if I can stand another 3 years of the existing rubbish...

Friday, December 12, 2008 6:39 AM by Aaron

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

Hrm, this sounds very pie in the sky, and most likely years away from any sort of release.

Doesn't it make you uncomfortable, the long void of silence during which Microsoft has said nothing about online help and pointed all it's products in random different directions? This is the kind of honest stuff a blog should be about...

Wednesday, March 04, 2009 8:46 AM by Paul E. Brennick

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

I develop in Assembly. I do not use VS or .NET

Is this help format going to be crippled by embedding it into the .NET framework?

Sunday, March 08, 2009 1:38 PM by E Hansen

# re: Help 3 @ the PDC

Will an SDK be available or will Help3 be private to Microsoft ?

With Help2 it was difficult to write a functional viewer without the documentation for the IHx interfaces. I am interested in adding Help3 support to my viewer, which is essentially a light help system plugin for small IDEs, but getting through Help2 was like pulling teeth, its working well now but trial and error with interfaces and OleView is not quite the way I prefer to write code.

Edgar

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