FAQ about the VDE
An interactive Visual Development Environment (VDE) includes text and
various graphical editors, code generating tools (Experts), build control
logic, and extensions to Prolog in the form of a Visual Programming Interface
(VPI). It also includes a Prolog compiler, various include files and
libraries, a linker, various examples and help files.
The Visual Prolog Environment is designed to make it easy, convenient and fast
to develop, test, and modify applications written in Visual Prolog.
Yes. The source for the whole Visual Development Environment is included in
the Professional Version.
In the versions previous to Visual Prolog 5.1, build 565 the
default setting for "Convert ANSI to OEM" option in the Compiler
Options dialog is ON. This causes problems with handling of non-English
characters, because the second part of the code table is unavailable.
To avoid problems with handling of non-English characters, uncheck the
"Convert ANSI to OEM" option if you use a version previous to
Visual Prolog 5.1, build 565. Since the build 565, the default setting of the
option is OFF.
See: Visual Prolog online Help (Contents -> Visual Development
Environment -> Resources Import Facility).
- To rename your project, use the "Project Name" edit control in
the General tab of the Application Expert.
FAQ about the Help Maker
- Visual Prolog contains the Help authoring system, the Help Maker, which
allows you to produce an on-line Help for your applications interactively.
- Visual Prolog Help Maker is an integrated part of the Visual Development
Environment (VDE). It provides developers with a set of tools to plan,
create, build and test online Help for their applications.
An online Help file created using the Help Maker can run under OS/2,
Microsoft Windows 3.1x, Microsoft Windows NT and Windows 95.
- Although it is possible to invoke on-line Help in many different ways,
Visual Prolog supports a simple framework that makes things a little easier.
When the Application Expert generates the main module, it will generate a
global predicate that should be used to invoke an on-line Help. In this way,
the invocations are centralized and any change can be done in one place.
For detailed information, please, see the "Implementing On-line
Help" topic of the Visual Prolog on-line Help (Contents -> Visual
Programming Interface (VPI) Fundamentals -> Help implementing).
-
"Help Topics" window can be activated only by clicking on the
"Help Topics" button in the Help window.
Workaround
Please see a detailed description.
- The Help Maker provides the possibility to import topics from ASCII, RTF,
IPF files, or another hyperbase by invoking Topics | Import from
menu item.
- You can copy topics using Clipboard, but hyperlinks will be destroyed,
though green coloring of hotspots will be preserved.
- Note that Visual Prolog provides an import facility that allows to copy
hyperlinks. While import the Help Maker parses topics, scans for hypertext
links, tries to resolve these links, and suggests to remove or redirect
unresolved links.
- The current version of the Visual Prolog does not allow to import the .RTF
files containing graphics. An attempt to import .RTF file with embedded
objects causes the necessity to restart Visual Prolog. Nevertheless, it does
not mean you cannot import file with graphics at all, because it is possible
to replace embedded objects in the source .RTF file with the references to
image files. For detailed information, please, see the on-line Help
(Contents -> Visual Development Environment (VDE) -> Help
Development System -> Importing .RTF Files with Graphics).
OS/2 restricts the formatting opportunities of the Help Maker. It allows
to:
 | determine left and right paragraph indents; |
 | create bulleted or numbered lists; |
 | define a paragraph as unwrappable.
(Unwrapped paragraphs might be useful for displaying programming examples,
tables, etc.) |
- Some of the formatting facilities that are not compliant with Windows Help
and are not realized by Help Maker can be implemented using IPF tags. This
tags can be directly included in Help Maker's topics and must be enclosed in
brackets.
- The use of Help macros depends on whether you choose to generate an OS/2
or Windows native Help system from a hyperbase. Windows Help system has a
set of macros that is available for your use in the Help Maker. These tools
can assign macros to the entire Help (Project macro) or to individual topics
(Topic macro).
- Help macros are not available in the OS/2 version.
- Help compilers are not supplied with Visual Prolog.
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