The help facility displays menus of topics and prompts the user for a choice. It then references the help file for that information. The help facility can be called with or without a commandline topic.
Syntax
(help [<path>])
where <path> is the full path leading to a topic in the help tree. For example, for information on defrule syntax, the user would type: (help construct_summary defrule). The help function has no return value.
Each element or field in the path is delimited by white space, and the help facility is not case sensitive. In addition, the entire name of a field does not need to be specified. Only enough characters to distinguish the field from other choices in the menu are necessary (if there is a conflict, the help facility will pick the first one in the list). For instance, (help con def) would be sufficient for the above example.
A few special fields can be used while in the help facility.
^ Branch up one level.
? When specified at the end of a path, this forces a display of the current menu, even on branchups.
<nil> Giving no topic field will branch up one level.
A branchup from the MAIN topic root node implies an exit from help.
By default, the help facility comes up in the MAIN topic root menu and the user may make a choice as described above. The prompt line always displays the name of the current menu. The help facility will branch through the helptree until instructed to exit by a branchup from the top level. The level always is reset to the MAIN topic upon exit from the help facility.
The first call to the help facility will take longer than
successive calls while the system loads help information into
an internal lookup table. All other calls to the help facility
are very fast.