A problem opening an old TurboBasic Help file

I am having problems in opening an old 90's vintage TurboBasic Help File which came with my TB software and but is proving very frustrating in not being able to be read. The file is listed with a .TBF extension which when opened in NotePad is accompanied with a lot of gobblegook and fails to make sense. As this is likely to be considered off-topic can I suggested that if there is anyone who can possible help that they send me a pm and I will attach a copy of the file.

You probably have this already … but just in case: **LINK**

http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/borland/Borland_Turbo_BASIC_Owners_Handbook_1987.pdf

A search therein, for TBHELP only finds four instances.

[ that exhausts my knowledge of the matter ]

MichaelG.

A very good ploy with questions like these is to use the terms in a Google seach. There, you will find no information whatsoever associating TBF files with TurboBasic.

There is a searchable version of the TurboBasic manual here:

https://archive.org/stream/bitsavers_borlandBorsHandbook1987_15768512/Borland_Turbo_BASIC_Owners_Handbook_1987_djvu.txt

It suggests that the help files are .TBH extension (not .TBF). TBF does not occur a single time in the above manual. It also suggests they are help screens rather than help files.

TBH occurs 8 times, and at occurence number 5 & 6, it suggests you have to do something or other if you want to store the file in anything other than the default directory.

Thanks for pointing out the error.. The TurboBasic help file should read TBHELP.TBH.

Picking up on DC31k's findings, the help file may consist of a binary header, plus groups of text, 'pages', each preceded by a blob of binary. The binary contains control information used by a display program to select stuff like font and font size, and maybe information such as character counts used to manage pagination etc. In the early days, proprietary help files were the norm; they contain link and other features similar to HTML, but non-standard. Some vendors encrypted their help files, or compressed them to save disc space, in which case not much can be done.

Linux comes with a command-line program called 'strings', which reads a file and only outputs readable characters. (Apple almost certainly has it too.) With luck, it might extract useful information.

Microsoft have a similar command line tool, not bundled with Windows, but it can be downloaded from here. As it's a simple DOS program, should work on most versions of Windows, Ancient and Modern! Worth trying.

Dave

If as the post from dc31k suggests that TBHELP.TBH refers to a screen file as opposed to a normal help file the question then becomes "How is it accessed from within the program"

Borland compilers came with an Integrated Development Environment, which allowed the programmer to edit, compile, run and debug programs from one place, rather than typing in lots of commands at a prompt.

This screenshot and short overview is on the web:

I guess the TBH file is understood by the program that provides the IDE. The TBH may contain the information typed out when F1 is pressed (Help), but may also configure all the IDE menus. Note Borland's IDE is a DOS program with GUI-like features, which Borland and others delivered in non-standard ways before Microsoft came up with a real GUI, MS-Windows,.

I've used Borland C++ which has a similar IDE. Part of it manages 'Resources'. These provide an interface to the Windows GUI, and hide a mass of tedious detail from the application programmer. Resource definitions, including help text, end up in a sort of configuration file. It's meaningful to Borland compiled programs, but nothing else. I suspect your TBH file is the same concept - a way of customising help for use by Borland programs that understand how to decode it. In the early days, separate Resource files were much used to internationalise software. By swapping Resources files the IDE would do its stuff in other languages.

What do you hope to find in the TBH? Hacking into it may not reveal much of value.

Dave

Hello Dave - Thanks for that. I can reproduce the same screen as in your screen-shot but it is not obvious where to go from there. However, I might well have a problem with the F1 Help support as pressing the key simply locks up the system and the only route back is via the CtRrAlt/Del/Shutdown. It could be that the .TBH file holds the data for use by the F1 key. as you suggest. Unfortunately I no longer have access to the original installation software and so will probably have to do without. A quick hack into the .TBH file indicates that there is nothing of great importance and I don’t think it is a great miss. Thanks for your help.

A very unlikely solution, but I have known it work in the past - so worth a try!

Save a copy of the required file - anywhere you find accessible- then use the rename function and call it anything you like but make sure that you change the file extension to .txt

Then double click the file. SOMETIMES you get a set of readable information. A few seconds to do and easy to delete if it doesn’t work!

He's already opened it in Notepad - presumably by right clicking and selecting <Open With> - though I would think Wordpad would be better.

In any event, changing the file extension to .txt simply means you can open it (in Notepad) by double clicking instead of right clicking. Doesn't change what you see.

A totally 'off the wall' suggestion.

The .tbf file may well be a database of help topics and Borland were the final developers of dBase so might have used the proprietary format they owned.

Rename the file to have a .dbf extension and try to open in Excel (Who has dBase installed nowadays!!)