Why Delphi Help does not come with examples anymore?

262 views Asked by At

When I worked with Delphi 5 I always pressed F1 on a method I did not knew how to use. The Help system explained what it is, what is does and gave an example on how to use it in a simple code. After that I installed Delphi 2006 and bammm! No more code examples.Anyone knows why give up on something so important?

1

There are 1 answers

10
Lex Li On BEST ANSWER

(Personal opinion based on observation and analysis of a long time Delphi user, as I am not from Delphi team. If you do have any evidence to support or challenge, please leave a comment.)

Delphi 5/6/7 help system was built upon a Microsoft Help system called WinHelp.

Due to Microsoft's decision to make WinHelp obsolete, all previous help materials become "impossible" to migrate (need more info from Embarcadero to support this statement). The new help system in Delphi 8-XE 3 was a completely new system. Porting contents and formats from the ancient platform to the new one becomes a huge burden and a very time consuming process, which takes many years to accomplish.

Delphi 2006 was an "intermediate" release, where its help system is half baked. You have to use a later release (such as the latest) to get F1 working as you wished. Or alternatively, use the online version, such as

http://docwiki.embarcadero.com/RADStudio/en/Delphi_Reference