help : Java Glossary

help

In general, help is text the user can request to help her understand a program. Context sensitive help tries to guess just what questions the user would be asking herself at that particular stage of the program. Java documentation and help tends to be based on HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) files.

Help with Applets

You probably came here to get help because one of the Canadian Mind Products utilities, Applets or web pages did not work for you. Here are the most likely problems:

If you are using Internet Explorer 7+ you must allow blocked content permission for Active X to run. This also gives permission to Java to run.
You need a very recent browser because this website depends on CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) 2 which is not even fully supported by the latest browsers.
Get New Browser
Each program is labeled with the version of Java it requires. However, I use only the latest Java myself, JDK 1.7.0_04. This is the only version I test with. It is the version with the best chance of working. The CurrCon currency displays requires Java version 1.1 or later. The JDisplay (Java Display) program listings requires Java version 1.2 or later. Just install the latest Java and be done with it! You can keep the old version too if you like, just make sure your browser is configured to us the latest one when you browse this website. You can find what version Java you are using with the Wassup Applet. Why so much Java? This website is primarily about Java. I wanted to show off what you can do with it.
Get New Java
After you have installed the latest Java, you should make sure it is working:
Test Java
For help getting the console visible so you can see error messages:
Engage Console
For help with individual browsers see:
Firefox
IE
Mozilla
Netscape
Opera

Help with Signed Applets and Java Web Start Apps

When you use a signed Applet or signed Java Web Start application, sometimes Windows hides the dialog box where you give permission for the program to run. Hit alt-Esc repeatedly to see if the grant/accept dialog box is buried under something else.
Signed Applets need your permission to break out of the sandbox and behave like ordinary programs to do things like read and write disk or talk to arbitrary servers on the web, or set your clock. They will behave very strangely if you refuse that permission. Different browsers ask permission various strange ways, but usually you have to click a button marked :
Accept Grant or Cancel Reject.

Installing the Canadian Mindprod Certificate

If you want to reduce hassle with signed Applets, you can once and for all install the Canadian Mind Products code-signing certificate and mark it is as trustworthy. All you have to do is click the button below:

Install Certificate

If that does not work, you can download the certificate and install it manually per the instructions under keytool.

Help With Java Web Start

Java Web Start won’t work until you set up an association between the *.jnlp files (MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) application/x-java-jnlp-file) and javaws.exe both in Windows and your browser. Both Sun and the browser makers have refused to do this automatically. Growl!
Repair any damage.
For help getting the Java Web Start (JWS (Java Web Start)) working:
Repair JWS

Brute Force JWS

If you can’t get your browser to work with JWS just save the *.jnlp file to disk and run it from the command line with

The Windows Help Bug

With Vista, Microsoft dropped support for the old .hlp Windows help files. They wanted authors to convert their programs to the new Vista .chm format and issue new Vista versions. Most authors did not bother and help for old programs stopped working in Vista.

It was a bold planned obsolescence move, though they protest the motive was security. I am doubtful. They could have changed the help viewer to disable any potentially dangerous feature.

So what do you do? You can ask the author to provide a Vista version, or you can convert the .hlp files yourself to either .chh, .html, .pdf etc. Unfortunately, the new help won’t be integrated with the program to pop up in a context sensitive way. I could not get Microsoft’s recommended kludge to work.

associations
browser
browsers
console
CurrCon: help getting price/currency display to work
HelpScribble: convert old Windows .hlp help files to Vista .chm format
installing java
JavaHelp
Repairing Browser JNLP/JWS MIME Association
Repairing Windows JNLP/JWS Association
Wassup Applet

	You can get the freshest copy of this page from:	or possibly from your local J: drive (Java virtual drive/mindprod.com website mirror)
	http://mindprod.com/jgloss/help.html	J:\mindprod\jgloss\help.html
	Please email your feedback for publication, letters to the editor, errors, omissions, typos, formatting errors, ambiguities, unclear wording, broken/redirected link reports, suggestions to improve this page or comments to Roedy Green : . If you want your message, your name or email kept confidential, not considered for public posting, please explicitly specify that. Unless you state otherwise, I will treat your message as a letter to the editor that I may or may not publish in the feedback section. After that, it will be too late to retract it. If you disagree with something I said, please quote it and cite the web page where you found it, tell me why you think it is wrong, and, if possible, provide some supporting evidence. Threatening to kill me or spouting obscenities has yet to persuade me to change my mind.
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