Go to Microsoft's HTML Help MVP Page

David's Visual Basic Page

Last updated August 15, 2009

HTML Help ISV Web Site    Visit David's HTMLHelp Center!

Press Release

David E. Liske, owner of Delmar Computing Services in Tipton, Michigan, has been selected as one of eleven Most Valuable Professionals (MVP's) in the field of HTML Help systems by Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, Washington. His selection was announced by Microsoft at the WinWriters Author's Choice Awards Ceremony at the Info Online Conference in Seattle, Washington, on February 23, 1999. The MVP program is designed to recognize professionals who voluntarily give their expertise to enhance the online experience and technical skills of others. Microsoft HTML Help is a set of technologies for delivering help and Web content using Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). It is designed for authors or developers who create content for software programs, multimedia titles, intranets, extranets, or for the Internet. David's HTMLHelp Center at VB Explorer gives Microsoft Visual Basic programmers a central location for information on using the new HTML Help technologies with the programs they develop. The site has been online only since August 1998, but by October 1998, Microsoft had provided a link to it from their main HTML Help web page, the only such link to a non-Microsoft site on the page.

David is a an active member of the WinHlp-L email discussion list on the subject of Help systems, along with about 1750 other Help authors and programmers. He has been designing Help files since 1994, and has been documenting computer systems since 1976. An author and technical reviewer for Wrox Press in Acocks Green, Birmingham, UK, he's written a case study for Beginning Visual Basic 6 Programming by Peter Wright, which he also performed technical review of during the writing process, and conducted technical review on a number of other books from Wrox Press and its sister company, Active Path. For over a year, David has also been the instructor for an on-line Microsoft Access database programming course at ZDU, and wrote the books for and instructed two courses on Microsoft Visual Basic programming. He is the owner of Delmar Computing Services, providing consulting, training, software development, and web site design. He's also a member of the VBxtras Advisory Board, writing product reviews for their 100+ page catalog of Visual Basic products. His experience includes working as a calibration systems technician and programmer for the U.S. Navy, and developing software, designing databases, and developing PLC-based robotics systems for the Toyota Technical Center.

David and his wife Marnella are both graduates of Grand Blanc High School in Grand Blanc, Michigan, and David also graduated from the Electronic Technician program at the DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio, in 1985. They share a converted 1851 one-room schoolhouse with their four homeschooled children and a daily average of three computers.

Recent Projects

  • Microsoft has place a link to my HTMLHelp page at VB Explorer on their main HTMLHelp page at the massive microsoft.com web site.  When you get there, click on HTMLHelp Center under "More Information About HTML Help".
  • I now have a considerable amount of material on the HTMLHelp page at VB Explorer.  This has also been recognized by Microsoft HTMLHelp MVP Dana Cline, who references this work on his own site at Tanstaafl Software.  Visit Dana's site for information on using WinHelp from Visual Basic.
  • Redeveloped the "Making a Library Book Wizard" from Beginning Visual Basic 6, with an emphasis on using HTMLHelp with Visual Basic.  The download contains executables and all source code, HTMLHelp files, and the source pages and images for those files.  This is featured on a new HTMLHelp page I'm hosting at Burt Abreu's VB Explorer, which has numerous other resources and an HTMLHelp message board.  The most important item is an in-depth tutorial I've written on the techniques involved.  Come out for a visit and say "Hi!"   Also, the large download will soon be available on the Wrox Press web site.  It will start on the source code page for the book, and be duplicated on their Visual Basic site when that site is ready.  Links will be provided to VB Explorer for the discussion area.
  • New books due from Wrox Press!  Stay tuned ...
  • Papers from this site, and related code, were posted on the popular site VB Explorer on August 12th and 13th (see below for more information on Burt Abreu's site).
  • Completed a case study entitled "Making a Library Book Wizard" for Peter Wright's recently-released Beginning Visual Basic 6, from Wrox Press.  Source code for this case study can be downloaded from the official source code page for this book on the Wrox Press web site.  It's Case Study 2 in Part II of both the source code files and the book itself.
  • Completed beta testing on a fantastic screen saver called Galaxies, which is freeware.  This screen saver was developed in Visual Basic 5 by Patrick D. Grengs II.
  • Technical review of Peter Wright's Beginning Objects With Visual Basic 5, from Wrox Press.

 

David's Programming Library

A complete listing of the programming books David keeps on-hand.  This is rather lengthy, and includes author(s), publisher, and ISBN for each entry.

 

Visual Basic News

Make sure you install Service Pack 1 for Visual Basic 6.  This update is now available from Microsoft, and provides much-needed fixes to the runtime files.

 

Calling HTML Help From Visual Basic

There really is a way to do this!   I've written a draft of a paper on the subject, and if you click here, you can download a copy in Word 97 format. 

The HTML Help API is written for the battery of C++ developers who normally do that kind of thing.  However, the API calls can be adapted for Visual Basic/VBA developers as well.  This paper shows the current progress of this conversion.  It is hoped that the development will continue to the point where the entire API will be accessible through this method.

For more information, visit the HTMLHelp section of VB Explorer.

 

WinHelp API Tutorial

This tutorial describes how to use the WinHelp API more effectively than the Common Dialog control when calling Help files and topics.   The information in this tutorial is compatible with all versions of Visual Basic.

The module described is also available.

 

N.I.S.T. Secure Hash Algorithm VB Module

The Secure Hash Standard is described by N.I.S.T. in great detail in a public domain document at the institute's official site.  It's the number 1 choice for encrypting passwords and other alphanumeric strings.  This code implements the same algorithm for all versions of Visual Basic.  Call this function from anywhere in your program, passing the original password string to it.  The 50-character encryption string will be returned, which you need to store in a safe place (such as a secure Access database).  Then, send password attempts through the same function and compare the return string to what's stored.  It's that simple to use!

 


A Place For The Visual Basic Newbie

You really need to check out this site!  Burt Abreu is a pseudo-newbie to Visual Basic himself, and he's put together an incredible site that has just about everything you need.  Tutorials, source code galore, book reviews, contests, game resources ... you can't go wrong if you bookmark his main page and go back as often as you can.  He also has an HTML version of the above Unsupported Controls paper in the Tutorials section of his site for those of you who don't have Word 97, and has also posted my WinHelp tutorial and module.  Head on over and say "Hi!"

 

WorldTRAIN Online Training Software
Carl Franklin of Carl & Gary's Visual Basic Home Page (the oldest Visual Basic site on the web, and still the king!) owns and operates this company that provides software for live online training sessions. Carl teaches VB Internet Programming classes online along with other topics.