If you're leery of the compatibility problems stemming from the move to System 7, are perplexed by the contents of your System Folder, or are just trying to track down an annoying INIT conflict, there's no need to fret. Help's on the way in the form of a new software program called — you guessed it — Help!. This technical-support software not only analyzes systems and highlights potential problems but it can also suggest possible solutions to whatever may be ailing your Mac.
Undergoing Analysis
After launching Help!, you use a dialog box to select the volumes you want to analyze. Help! creates the appropriate report, which may include an analysis of one or more hard drives, servers, or floppy-disk drives. You can analyze your present configuration or find out how it would react to changes in the startup volume orsystem software. Choosing one of eight simulated system versions gives you a glimpse of any problems that may occur as you switch from System 6 to System 7 or to any of the interim system releases.
Depending on your Mac’s configuration. Help! takes a minute or two to generate a report. When it's finished, a portion of the report is displayed onscreen. where you can peruse or print it. Using Help!’s unique pop-up menus located at the bottom of the program window, you can quickly jump to the contents that most interest you, A full report contains separate configuration and diagnostic sections, which are broken down into 17 subjects. You can omit items to create custom reports.
The Configuration section of Help!'s report contains detailed information about your System Folder, applications, fonts, DAs. drivers, system settings, SCSI devices, storage volume, expansion cards, video, and open files. This is similar to the information provided by Ken McLeod's MacEnvy freeware control panel (available on ZiffNet/Mac) and Now Utilities' Profiler application.
Tracking Down the Problem
The configuration information tends to be quite technical: the Diagnostics section, on the other hand, is more practical for tracking down potential problems. Damaged, uninstalled, and duplicated files are identified, but it's up to you to fix, install, or delete them, using a program such as Norton Utilities for the Macintosh or SUM II.
Although Help! doesn't fix the problems it detects, it consults its extensive Knowledgebase and offers suggestions on how to resolve critical situations, conflicts, and incompatibilities. The Knowledgebase contains rules culled from testing labs, developers, on-line discussions, and Apple's Compatibility Checker. Rules can specify that one INIT needs to load before another, for example, or that an application's Help file must be in a particular folder. Rules are the heart and soul of Help!. The Knowledgebase currently contains 2,500 rules, and Teknosys plans to add roughly 1,000 new rules per quarter on a subscription basis.
When Help! identifies an incompatibility, it displays the name of the problem file, briefly explains the nature of the conflict, and suggests a course of action (usually “contact the publisher for an update”). Publishers' telephone numbers are listed, but the information would benefit greatly from the addition of fax numbers as well as local numbers when only toll-free numbers are given (Toll-free lines are often extremely busy and are notoriously inaccessible from outside the U.S.).
Most of the incompatibilities listed by Help! are of the generic “this program is incompatible and may result in system errors or irregular behavior” variety. In practice, the majority of these tagged programs work just fine. The only problem is that they’re outdated and Help!'s Knowledgebase rules pertain to new versions of the programs only. Teknosys is in the process of adding more rules to the Knowledgebase and rewording error messages to eliminate this ambiguity.
The Bottom Line
Although Help! can't fix an ailing system, it's the best tool we’ve found to date for spotting problems and identifying their sources. Moreover, its simulated system software provides a great way to flag prospective problems before you move to System 7. As its Knowledgebase grows, Help! promises to become an invaluable diagnostic tool, especially if it receives support from developers. Some additional features we'd like to see in future versions are user-defined rules and automated corrective action for identified problems. Even so, the current version of Help! leapfrogs Apple's Compatibility Checker and runs rings around competitors such as Baseline Publishing's INITInfo Pro, a $70 HyperCard stack that consists primarily of unsubstantiated bug reports drawn from on-line discussions.
By contrast. Help! reports are consistent and are formatted in a useful and attractive layout. Overall, Help! is an impressive technical-support program that belongs in the shirt pocket of every Mac MIS administrator. Individuals may need Help! only periodically, but it can shed light on a variety of mysterious system misbehaviors,
Linzmayer, Owen W. (April 1992). Help! MacUser. (pgs. 72, 74).
Teknosys
Applications
out of 10 (0 vote)
2 / 
2020-09-15 / 
ae11ef8f927b512d91b831a86e1c4edc48cb9e54 / 
/ 
Teknosys.sit
Emulating this? It could probably run under: 
Basilisk II
