Design of the SCOhelp system

The SCOhelp system is a client/server system based on the World Wide Web (WWW) protocol standards HTML (for content markup) and HTTP (for delivery). The client is Netscape Communicator and the server is the Netscape FastTrack server.

The HTML file format used in the SCOhelp browser supports documentation for these purposes:

• context-sensitive help files for applications

• manual pages accessed in a manner similar to the traditional UNIX^® man(1) command

• online documentation, such as guides and tutorials

The SCOhelp system supports the multiple language features of the WWW, including:

• support for the ISO8859-1 ISO Latin1 character set, with extensions for other character sets

• multiple languages installed on the same documentation server

• automatic selection of the content language and fallback to an alternate language based on a user's LANG environment variable (using the HTTP protocol Accept-Language parameter)

The modular nature of HTML files used in the SCOhelp system allows you to add new documentation to the system. You can:

• install new documentation alongside existing documentation

• provide context-sensitive help for new applications

• install new man page sections and add individual man pages to existing sections

• add translated documentation

• add or replace single or multiple HTML files

• retire (replace with a placeholder) single or multiple HTML files

• update search indexes

• update navigational pages

An added benefit of the HTTP-based SCOhelp system is the ability to access documentation updates over the WWW. You can use this feature to create a downloadable documentation installation package or to link to documentation updates on another HTTP server.

See also:

• ``Browser and server''

• ``SCOhelp system directory structure''

• ``Navigation with views''