Question
Why do we need Applet support?
In another thread, I'm trying to work out a problem deploying
WebHelp because the file webhelp.jar in RH 7 WebHelp output cannot
be unzipped (or un-jarred).
This file is used for applet support, according to the RH help topic on output files, when you select the DHTML > Applet > Pure HTML option when generating WebHelp.
Yet, when I generate DHTML > Pure HTML (no applet), the identical jar file appears in the WebHelp output. There is a flag in the launch file and whskin_homepage.htm on whether applet support is on or off, depending on the setting. So when support is off, webhelp.jar is just an appendix.
Aside from the myriad questions about how RH is handling this, and why this is coming up just now, I have a more basic question: When would a user need applet support in the absence of DHTML support? What WebHelp features would be broken or disabled? What browsers would this affect?
Here's my suspicion: This code was invented for older IE browsers, or maybe old Netscape browsers. We still have a lot of browser-specific code in WebHelp that seems to be trying to satisfy IE 4 and 5, and Netscape 4 through 6.
Unless I hear that any users in this century will be adversely affected, my inclination is to toss out the jar file altogether. On testing, I can't find anything broken in Firefox that wasn't broken before.
Any ideas?
Harvey
This file is used for applet support, according to the RH help topic on output files, when you select the DHTML > Applet > Pure HTML option when generating WebHelp.
Yet, when I generate DHTML > Pure HTML (no applet), the identical jar file appears in the WebHelp output. There is a flag in the launch file and whskin_homepage.htm on whether applet support is on or off, depending on the setting. So when support is off, webhelp.jar is just an appendix.
Aside from the myriad questions about how RH is handling this, and why this is coming up just now, I have a more basic question: When would a user need applet support in the absence of DHTML support? What WebHelp features would be broken or disabled? What browsers would this affect?
Here's my suspicion: This code was invented for older IE browsers, or maybe old Netscape browsers. We still have a lot of browser-specific code in WebHelp that seems to be trying to satisfy IE 4 and 5, and Netscape 4 through 6.
Unless I hear that any users in this century will be adversely affected, my inclination is to toss out the jar file altogether. On testing, I can't find anything broken in Firefox that wasn't broken before.
Any ideas?
Harvey
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