Wextech Papertrail (Or other HLP file disassembler.)

Can anyone help me get this tool, or a something else that will decompile
Windows *.HLP files?

I have found 12 MB of good Win32 API reference, but trying to handle this in
a tool that forgets the last search term, whose scroll bar doesn't work, and
where there is NO text 'select all' option from menu, keyboard shortcut, or
right click menu option, is like trying to use an encylopedia from a firm who
genuinely thought they were asked to design a lunchbox. I can neither read
the text clearly, nor easily copy it out to where I can do so! As it is it's
utterly unusable so I really need to strip it apart and ideally recompile it
as a CHM file. Are there any tools that can do this on W9X? All the
papertrail links are as dry as a Saharan riverbed, all died many years ago.
I'm suprised Google even cache the referring pages.

Lostgallifreyan wrote:
Can anyone help me get this tool, or a something else that will decompile
Windows *.HLP files?

I have found 12 MB of good Win32 API reference, but trying to handle this
in
a tool that forgets the last search term, whose scroll bar doesn't work,
and
where there is NO text 'select all' option from menu, keyboard shortcut,
or
right click menu option, is like trying to use an encylopedia from a firm
who
genuinely thought they were asked to design a lunchbox. I can neither read
the text clearly, nor easily copy it out to where I can do so! As it is
it's
utterly unusable so I really need to strip it apart and ideally recompile
it
as a CHM file. Are there any tools that can do this on W9X? All the
papertrail links are as dry as a Saharan riverbed, all died many years
ago.
I'm suprised Google even cache the referring pages.

Actually, I'm kind of surprised there isn't any tool to do this right that
will run on Win98 (IF that is indeed the case), and convert it to some
usable form, even if only a RTF document. But I would have thought there
were some HLP to CHM converters out there.

Do you just want to extract the text from it? I would think you could open
it in a good text editor and use one of its built-in filters to filter out
all the non-ASCII text characters; the result would be a continuous flow of
text (not formatted or anything), and you'd have to reformat it to make it
presentable, obviously. A bit of a pain.

On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:22 -0600, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Can anyone help me get this tool, or a something else that will decompile
Windows *.HLP files?

I asked a similar question some time ago:
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...0c1ff7d473d9cd

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Bill in Co" wrote in
m:

Actually, I'm kind of surprised there isn't any tool to do this right
that will run on Win98 (IF that is indeed the case), and convert it to
some usable form, even if only a RTF document. But I would have
thought there were some HLP to CHM converters out there.


Maybe, but that's why I asked.. I can trawl the big web file stashes but it's
not efficient. The one I asked about was touted as excellent everywhere I
encountered it, but all links were dead. So if it were really that good, it
makes sense to assume someone posting here might have saved it.

Web stashes are lousy at knowing what is good, never mind what actually runs
on W98, but people here are good at knowing both.


Do you just want to extract the text from it? I would think you could
open it in a good text editor and use one of its built-in filters to
filter out all the non-ASCII text characters; the result would be a
continuous flow of text (not formatted or anything), and you'd have to
reformat it to make it presentable, obviously. A bit of a pain.


Indeed. Doing that for 12MB? I doubt there's that much text in several
volumes of the Encylopedia Britannica. TextPad is a GREAT editor (programming
syntax highlighting, all sorts of good stuff), but it can't do that. HLP's
are binaries.

I'd like the internal linkage too if I can get it. 12MB of API reference has
a LOT of linkage between subjects and various API details. It took a team of
Microsoft developers to make it, so I won't kid myself that building it all
from scratch, myself, is a feasible prospect. Direct conversion to CHM might
be though. A dream come true, frankly.. The CHM viewer is a far better
tool that the HLP viewer.

Franc Zabkar wrote in
:

On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:22 -0600, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Can anyone help me get this tool, or a something else that will
decompile Windows *.HLP files?

I asked a similar question some time ago:
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...iscussion/brow
se_thread/thread/491d6b84d0c3fd23/5b0c1ff7d473d9cd#5b0c1ff7d473d9cd

- Franc Zabkar

Nice. Thanks. That looks like a few good leads.

Franc Zabkar wrote in
:

On Thu, 09 Feb 2012 16:00:22 -0600, Lostgallifreyan
put finger to keyboard and composed:

Can anyone help me get this tool, or a something else that will
decompile Windows *.HLP files?

I asked a similar question some time ago:
http://groups.google.com/group/micro...iscussion/brow
se_thread/thread/491d6b84d0c3fd23/5b0c1ff7d473d9cd#5b0c1ff7d473d9cd

- Franc Zabkar

Franc, did you get any good CHM-maker? I tested the decompiler and the
Microsoft help compiler, so I think the extraction to RTF works ok given that
despite a load of apparently unresolved links, all those I found manually
appear to work in the recompiled file. So I now have RTF as well as HLP as
potential source for CHM, so if you or anyone knows a certainty for CHM-
making this way, please point me at it.

Lostgallifreyan wrote in
:

...I now have RTF as well as HLP as
potential source for CHM, so if you or anyone knows a certainty for CHM-
making this way, please point me at it.


Or even to HTML and images, doesn't have to be compiled. I just like that
CHM idea because the viewer is so good.

Converting HLP to CHM, via RTF and HTML.
A method known to work on W98.
(All tools are freeware).

From Franc Zabkar's post, I get a Usenet thread archive that leads to this:
http://www.helpscribble.com/decompiler.html
Which leads to this:
http://download.jgsoft.com/helpscribble/helpdc21.zip
Get it, it reliably decompiles HLP files to RTF and project files needed
later.


On Franc's thread, Gary Terhune took up a different HLP compiler that works,
it's Microsoft's original: (Beware, wordwrapped URL).
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...4.03/win98/en-
us/hcwsetup.exe
Get it, even if just to recompile as a test that the DEcompile worked right.
(The new HLP file will differ, but should act and appear like the original).

A bit of Googling found that Microsoft do a freeware CHM compiler too:
http://www.microsoft.com/download/en...ng=en&id=21138
Get HTMLHELP.exe, (HTMLHELPj.exe is a Japanese one). Documentation not
needed, but likely useful.


Start with the HTML help compiler (which installs by default into the same
directory as the HLP compiler).

Select New, Project, tick 'Convert WinHelp project'. Locate the *.HPJ file
left by the decompiler.

Specify where to put the new project file HHP. Don't make my first mistake of
putting CHM here by accident.

After some time, a bunch of HTML files will be made from the decompiler's
RTF, and its images will be copied for later compiling.

When this is done, compile the new CHM. I got a 20MB HLP (12MB zipped) to
convert to a CHM file smaller than 7MB, and it appears to work correctly,
even including internal linkage and images. Contents and indexing seem to be
either missing or mixed up with main data content, but the result is
searchable, easily selectable, and scrollable, much better handling than the
original HLP.

If anyone knows ways to improve on this, please let me know.

Lostgallifreyan wrote:
"Bill in Co" wrote in
m:

Actually, I'm kind of surprised there isn't any tool to do this right
that will run on Win98 (IF that is indeed the case), and convert it to
some usable form, even if only a RTF document. But I would have
thought there were some HLP to CHM converters out there.


Maybe, but that's why I asked.. I can trawl the big web file stashes but
it's
not efficient. The one I asked about was touted as excellent everywhere I
encountered it, but all links were dead. So if it were really that good,
it
makes sense to assume someone posting here might have saved it.

Web stashes are lousy at knowing what is good, never mind what actually
runs
on W98, but people here are good at knowing both.


Do you just want to extract the text from it? I would think you could
open it in a good text editor and use one of its built-in filters to
filter out all the non-ASCII text characters; the result would be a
continuous flow of text (not formatted or anything), and you'd have to
reformat it to make it presentable, obviously. A bit of a pain.


Indeed. Doing that for 12MB? I doubt there's that much text in several
volumes of the Encylopedia Britannica. TextPad is a GREAT editor
(programming
syntax highlighting, all sorts of good stuff), but it can't do that. HLP's
are binaries.

I just opened a .HLP file in Quick View Plus, where one can do a select all
and copy operation, and then paste that mess into a text editor, and then
filter it, but this is admitedly pretty primitive. I guess if one were
really desperate to get at least some text out of the .HLP file, it could
work in a pinch, however. :-)

"Bill in Co" wrote in
:

I just opened a .HLP file in Quick View Plus, where one can do a select
all and copy operation, and then paste that mess into a text editor, and
then filter it, but this is admitedly pretty primitive. I guess if one
were really desperate to get at least some text out of the .HLP file, it
could work in a pinch, however. :-)




Did you see my answer? I posted a way to do it based on stuff Franc Zabkar
posted. There is no way a human can copy/paste the file I was working on. A
1.2 GHz machine took nearly twenty minutes of processing time all in. If I'd
had to do it by hand I'd have died of old age long before I'd got around to
analysing the linkage I wanted.