Announcement

**Lance Edmonds** · 21 Apr 2000, 09:07 PM

In the same directory as WIN32.HLP, you'll find a pair of additional files: 1 hidden file called WIN32.GID and a file called WIN32.CNT. There is a high probability that one of these index files is corrupted.

Delete both of these files and relaunch WIN32.HLP - that should cause the WINHELP engine to regenerate the indexes required by the FIND dialog.

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**Charles Dietz** · 21 Apr 2000, 09:25 PM

I tried what you suggested, Lance, but I still get the same problem.
After the error, only win32.GID reappeared, not win32.cnt. I'm surprised
that many others haven't experienced this problem, but I could find no
trace of it in the PowerBasic website search. Any other ideas, Lance?

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**Knuth Konrad** · 22 Apr 2000, 12:35 AM

Originally posted by Charles Dietz:
I tried what you suggested, Lance, but I still get the same problem.
After the error, only win32.GID reappeared, not win32.cnt. I'm surprised
that many others haven't experienced this problem, but I could find no
trace of it in the PowerBasic website search. Any other ideas, Lance?

There are two problems here:

1.) WINHLP32.EXE. The version shipped with Win95 seems to be "weaker" than the one shipped with Win NT. You can simply get a copy of the NT version and replace your 95 version with it. This solves some help file issues in Win95

2.) Win95/Memory. I experienced the same problem as you on my Win95. I also tried other 95 workstations and was never able to create the Find-index. It just GPF's. On the other hand creating the Find-index for WIN32.HLP on NT/W2K workstations has never been a problem. My guess is that WINHLP32.EXE tries to do an in-memory indexing which fails on Win95 due to its 16-Bit "roots" and works on the 32-Bit platforms...but I'm just guessing here.

Knuth

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**Scott Hauser** · 22 Apr 2000, 05:56 AM

Hi,
I have experienced no problems with the help file. I downloaded
the file from the Powerbasic ftp site. I am using Win 95
[Version 4.00.1111] Perhaps the version you are using is
different?

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**Charles Dietz** · 22 Apr 2000, 12:58 PM

I am currently using Windows 98 SE, but I experienced the same problem before
when I was using Windows 95 b.

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**Lance Edmonds** · 22 Apr 2000, 06:30 PM

I'm afraid I've run out of ideas... The help file and the help engine are not PowerBASIC products.

We used to offer a "newer" version of WIN32.ZIP which contained essentially the same information, but internally the contents of the help file was "compressed" differently so the entire download was only about 5Mb. However we were forced to withdraw this file because it caused problems (along the lines of the one you are experiencing), but with a much wider range of Windows versions. The 8Mb version we now offer has been the least problematic.

Have you considered upgrading to a newer version of Windows?

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**Lance Edmonds** · 23 Apr 2000, 03:55 AM

Hmmm... that jogs my memory... try deleting the .FTS file too... that is the index file for the Find dialog - I seem to recall having a problem with that one at one stage, for no apparent reason and once I deleted it the help engine rebuilt the database and FInd worked again.

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**K Peel** · 23 Apr 2000, 04:16 AM

Don't delete the WIN32.CNT file as that is the contents for the help, deleting the winhelp-generated .FTS and .GID files also doesn't help.

The very first Win32.hlp I downloaded from PowerBasic worked fine, but the full text search on the newer versions bottoms out with a GPF on Win98 and Win95!

I think it must be a Win95/98 issue if everything works ok on NT.

------------------
Kev G Peel
KGP Software
Bridgwater, UK.
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

**Semen Matusovski** · 23 Apr 2000, 04:28 AM

It seems to me, that
ftp://ftp.borland.com/pub/delphi/techpubs/delphi2/win32.zip
works under 9x w/o problems.
But to say true, I prefer to find "idea" in Win32api.hlp and then to look more fresh and detail MSDN (on CD - which came with VB6 - or online)

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**Scott Hauser** · 23 Apr 2000, 08:33 AM

Hi,
It just occured to me that sometime back I installed one of
the freebie MSDN help tools. I think it was 'Help Compiler Workshop" or
something like that. I believe I installed this prior to downloading the
win32.hlp.

"Perhaps" this tool updated my system files and as a result I
never experienced the trouble some of you are having.

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**Charles Dietz** · 23 Apr 2000, 12:14 PM

I downloaded the win32.zip from Borland's web site per Semen's suggestion, and it
worked fine. But I notice that it is a little smaller file and a little older than
the one I downloaded from PowerBasic's ftp site.

win32.hlp from PowerBasic: 12,312 KB 2/3/97
win32.hlp from Borland: 11,015 KB 4/16/96

Karl, you reported a much larger and more recent one. Where did you get yours?

Semen, you mentioned that you prefer using Win32api.hlp. Is that different
from win32.hlp? I can't find any file named win32api.hlp.

By the way, I am running an AMD-K7 with 128 Megs of RAM, and am using
Windows 98, 2nd ed.

Thanks everyone for your help and your suggestions.

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**Lance Edmonds** · 23 Apr 2000, 05:00 PM

We recently renamed the file from WIN32HLP.ZIP to WIN32.ZIP in keeping with the names of the contents of the file.

http://www.powerbasic.com/files/pub/mstools/win32.zip

------------------
Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected]sic.com [email protected]</A>

**Knuth Konrad** · 24 Apr 2000, 12:59 AM

Originally posted by Karl Lessmann:
My present computer is running Windows98 SE
and did not exhibit that problem. However,
this time I have double the memory, 128mb,
so that may be the reason.

Well, that might be the point. My machine at home has 64 MB. I'm currently running Win95B (German).

Knuth

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**Joseph W Murphy** · 24 Apr 2000, 05:38 AM

You can try this website for a newer (Nov 1999) Windows Help File
I do not believe that you will need to change any of your EXE's or DLL's to use this version

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

Code:

Size of these files are
    the Downloaded file:        win32hlp.exe    13,471,059
    The resulting HLP file      win32.hlp       20,033,075
    The resulting FTS file      win32.fts       28,022,272
    
    The exe DOES NOT include the CNT file, and you need it to use
    the FIND tab, but here it is:
    
Contents of c:\win32api\win32.cnt
:TITLE Win32 Programmer's Reference
:INDEX Win32 Programmer's Reference = win32.hlp
:INCLUDE WIN32SDK.CFG
:INCLUDE WIN32.TOC

Hope this helps

Joe Murphy

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**Knuth Konrad** · 24 Apr 2000, 11:22 PM

Originally posted by Joseph W Murphy:
You can try this website for a newer (Nov 1999) Windows Help File
I do not believe that you will need to change any of your EXE's or DLL's to use this version

http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/

Thanks, Joe. I'll give it a try.

Knuth

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**Lance Edmonds** · 26 Apr 2000, 04:10 AM

for those interested, a possible solution has been identified... http://www.powerbasic.com/support/pb...ead.php?t=2142

on my win2000 pc, the gid and fts files were located in my \winnt\help folder. in win95a, there were in the same folder as the .hlp file.

can anyone verify if this solves their problem, and if possible, the location of the .gid and .fts files on your pc? many thanks!

------------------
lance
powerbasic support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</a>

**Knuth Konrad** · 26 Apr 2000, 07:04 AM

Originally posted by Lance Edmonds:
On my Win2000 PC, the GID and FTS files were located in my \WINNT\HELP folder. In Win95a, there were in the same folder as the .HLP file.

(...kind of continuing the PBDLL.HLP thread here)
Funny enough, on my Win2000 the PBDLL.GID was created in folder the help file is in, whereas the PBDLL.FTS got created in the WINNT\HELP folder...

Knuth

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