To initialize the help system, you must specify the name of the compiled help file in your ESL source file. This file is called a compiled HTML help file and is a library that contains the text of all the help topics.

You specify the library file by using the help library environment declaration; for example:

help library "myhelp.hlp" title ""

ESL ignores any quoted text following the title keyword, however, it is needed to match the syntax requirements of the ESL compiler.

If a program executed with the change to program action statement has a help library declaration, the old help library is released and the help library for the new program is loaded. If the new program does not have a help library declaration, the help library from the previous program stays in effect.

If no help library declaration is found, the help system is not initialized. In this case, help is not available even if you have defined help IDs for ESL objects.