Turbo Vision Help

This format is used to make online manuals for DOS programs that are compiled with Borland's Turbo Vision library. UDO's output has to be converted with TVHC.EXE. The source code of TVHC.EXE is available and you have to change some parts because it contains some bugs.

If you aren't an author that programs software that uses the Turbo Vision library you shouldn't use this format.

TVHC prints the error message Unterminated topic reference!?

My TVHC version 1.0 contains an ugly bug. Due to this bug you cannot quote brackets by using them twice. If your TVHC prints the upper error message look for the function scanForCrossRefs() in tvhc.cpp and patch it like this:

Original Version:

if (line[i+1] == begXRef)
{
    strdel(line, i, 1);
        ++i;
}

Patched version:

if (line[i] == begXRef)    // [i] instead of [i+1]
{
    strdel(line, i, 1);
        ++i;
}

After having changed the source code you should recompile TVHC to enable the changes.

TVHC prints the error message Text too long!?

The file tvhc.h contains a constant number named bufferSize that defines the maximum size of the text buffer. This text buffer is a little bit small. You should increase the buffer size e.g. to 32 KB to suppress the upper error message:

const bufferSize = 32768;

After having changed the buffer size you should recompile TVHC to enable the changes.

TVHC prints the error message TOPIC expected!?

This error message is printed if a line starts with a point. The point is a special character in Turbo Vision Help if it is the first character of a line. My TVHC stops if it reads such a line.

But there's no need to stop the conversion. Thus I have patched my TVHC. I have replaced this line

error("TOPIC expected");

with

warning("TOPIC expected");

If you recompile the TVHC it will print a warning and it will go on converting the source file instead of printing an error message.