Building Identical Help Files

Sometimes (when performing quality assurance tests, for example) it may be important to compare the binary versions of a Help file compiled from the same source files. However, if the Help compiler displays any error messages on the screen (other than progress periods), subsequent builds of the Help file will not compare to previous ones, even though they are using exactly the same source files. (The Help files work the same; they just aren’t identical.)

This happens because Help files include a time stamp indicating when they were compiled. In addition, the Help compiler writes uninitialized parts of memory buffers to disk every time a screen message is printed. Therefore, Help files will not be identical when compiled from the same source.

If binary compares are important to you, you can try this workaround (which is not guaranteed to work).

To compile a Help file that may be recreated exactly

1.1.Create a batch file that:

nZeros the machine’s memory.

nResets the clock.

nCompiles the Help file.

2.2.Run the batch file to create the identical version.