Menu calls showtext, using either the default or customized helpfile,
with the listed categories and subjects in the order shown in
Table 7-4. For each entry listed, it's corresponding help text is displayed
if the help section is found and the criterions for that help section are met.
Table 7-4: Category and Subjects called with menu
helpfile
Category Subject
Help Section Display
menuname title of choice Skipped if no choice is highlighted. A search is made for the help section specific to the title of the highlighted choice. There are no help sections of this kind in the default menu helpfile distributed with C/Base.
menuname The help section for the menufile's current menu is displayed. There are no help sections of this kind in the default menu helpfile distributed with C/Base.
menu The last help section displayed is the generic help section for the category menu. If this help section is not found in the customized helpfile, this help section is displayed from the default helpfile for menu.
For example, the help section level number and section names that could be used for the C/Base demonstration menu are:
1 demo
2 1 - Enter Magazines
2 2 - Enter Subscriptions
2 3 - List Subscribers
2 4 - List Subscriptions
2 5 - List Magazines
2 6 - List Subscriber Labels
2 X - exit
In this example, if a choice is highlighted when help is requested, the corresponding choice's help section is displayed. The next help section displayed is the general help information for the menu demo. If more information is requested by the operator, the following menu choices that are defined as level 2 help sections are displayed.
Depending on how the application developer wanted to display help sections, this helpfile could be designed so that each of the menu choice's help sections were defined as a level 1 help sections. In this case, a choice's help section would only be displayed if the corresponding menu choice was highlighted when help was requested.
The help section for menu could also be added to the customized helpfile. The help section title would be entered as:
1 menu
When this section is omitted from the customized menu helpfile, this help section is displayed from the default helpfile for menus. The default helpfile distributed with C/Base has only the following help section defined:
1
menu