Convert a VMS HELP file to HTML

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VMS uses a Help file format for user and code documentation. I have created a Help file for a library. Is there a command to convert a VMS Help file to HTML?

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0
user2116290 On

The simple answer is: no.

Almost all OpenVMS HELP files are generated from common documentation sources. The tool, which was used for that, was DECdocument. It can create printable documentation as well as PDF, HTML and HELP files. And you can select, which piece of information goes where. So the not so simple answer is, use such a tool to create both your HELP and HTML files. DECdocument was (is?) available as a product from Touch Technologies, Inc. Whether it is worth to buy it for "converting" some HELP files, I don't know. Whether the product includes all you need to do the same as the OpenVMS documentation group did, I don't know either. It is quite possible, that, to get the wanted output, you need some macros, or include files etc. which were used/written by the OpenVMS documentation group and therefore are not part of the product.

0
Suresh Dooly On

OpenVMS help documentation is located in the SYS$SYSHELP directory.

$ TYPE SYS$SYSHELP:[...]*those doc*.doc;/out=abcd.txt
$ mail/sub="help" abcd.txt
To:     [email protected]
$

Now, you will get the email in the body of the email and you can convert it into HTML.