Forums mIRC Help Inline Help

Does anyone else really dislike the help file? Would anyone else like to see inline help?

Not me. I like being able to call up the help file when I want to.

I like it just fine.

Is this trolling or...?

I'm very pleased with the current help file.

The help file is fine, though it wouldn't hurt to add more examples or better explanations for some of the items. We definitely don't need inline help.

Judging by his other posts, probably.

Grr I wish I could go back and refine my original post.

I'm not saying replacing the help file. I'm asking if people would like to see *inline* help. Help that is displayed within mIRC.

For example, you want a brief glance at the switches used by /echo. You type /echo --h or /echo /h or something and you get a brief summary of /echo.

The help file obstructs the current view. also it's layout is sometimes inconstant. Inline help would help with this. Right now all you get is "* /echo: insufficient parameters".

No. I find it irritating.

In my experience, possibly due to the configuration of my system, the help file opens in it's own window, thus allowing me to be able to minimize, maximize or resize the window to how I want. I can do this with the mIRC window as well, so it's possible for me to have both windows visible on the screen at the same time.

As to your //echo /h suggestion for getting the switches for the /echo command, I see little difference between this and the current /help /echo

Still not interested. If I'm testing something I want my results on screen and not a bunch of help stuff. The help file is much better and is plenty good enough. Besides, adding help to everything would be a similar amount of work as completely redoing the help file. It's not worth the time involved.

lol seriously... read what you are saying... "maintaining documentation isn't worth the work". oh well i checked around. I've already implemented a framework. Converted the help docs to HTML, so at least I'll have inline help.

Congratulations.

Read what is said and don't try to change what is obviously meant. We have a help file and it should be updated as needed. I never said otherwise. I did say that it wasn't worth the time to recreate it in another form when we already have it available.

The help file obstructs the current view? How small is your screen? You have multiple windows that can be cascaded, tiled or placed anywhere your mIRC window is not. You could even place the help window exactly where the inline help would otherwise pop up.

I suppose one could also argue that inline help would obstruct your current view too. A hypothetical /echo --help would be forever part of your channel/status window buffer. At least you can close a help file when you're done with it... it's really only "obstructing" your view while you're reading it.. I'd rather call that "being used".

Question: How do you obtain information about server side commands, services, and the like.

Answer: It's sent to your client and displayed inline.

END OF DISCUSSION

P.S. No I will not connect the dots for you,

P.P.S. You people are going to take whatever I say and twist it. Not saying replace the help file. Just offer another and easy alternative to quickly look things up without swapping windows.

My suggestion, DO IT!
Work out the bugs.
Submit it to any or all of the many scripting/script hosting sites out there ( http://www.hawkee.com/ for example).
Then tell people here what you've done and let them use/NOT use at their own discretion.

All of these flame posts by you and others are annoying at best, and do NO ONE any good.

The fact that server-side help works this way isn't proof that it's better... it's done this way because it's the only way for the server to provide a help response. mIRC has the advantage of being able to popup a help file. Personally I prefer server help files displayed on the network's website, as it provides all the benefits I mentioned in my previous post.

As mentioned, if you think this is a good idea, script it. I assume if there is a large amount of interest in your proof of concept, Khaled might consider implementing this for all commands.