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<!DOCTYPE MAN SYSTEM "../../manrev.dtd">
<MAN>
  <LANGUAGE>eng</LANGUAGE>
  <TITLE>help</TITLE>
  <TYPE>Scilab Function</TYPE>
  <DATE>January 2002</DATE>
  <SHORT_DESCRIPTION name="help"> on-line help command</SHORT_DESCRIPTION>
  <CALLING_SEQUENCE>
    <CALLING_SEQUENCE_ITEM>help(key)</CALLING_SEQUENCE_ITEM>
    <CALLING_SEQUENCE_ITEM>help</CALLING_SEQUENCE_ITEM>
  </CALLING_SEQUENCE>
  <PARAM>
    <PARAM_INDENT>
      <PARAM_ITEM>
        <PARAM_NAME>key</PARAM_NAME>
        <PARAM_DESCRIPTION>
          <SP>: character string. Gives the help page to be found</SP>
        </PARAM_DESCRIPTION>
      </PARAM_ITEM>
   </PARAM_INDENT>
  </PARAM>
  <DESCRIPTION>
    <P><VERB>help</VERB> without argument displays the hypertext  page
      containing the list of help chapters.</P>

    <P><VERB>help(key)</VERB> displays the Scilab help file associated with the
      given  <VERB>key</VERB>. If no help file is found, <VERB>help(key)</VERB>
      automatically call <VERB>apropos(key)</VERB>.</P>

    <P> Scilab includes its own simple browser written in TCL/TK. It is possible to choose an other one.
    The global variable <VERB>%browsehelp</VERB> contains a string defining which browser 
      must be used: its value may be changed (or redefined in your startup files : SCIHOME/.scilab or SCIHOME/scilab.ini). Note that when you 
      enter an <VERB>help</VERB> command while <VERB>%browsehelp</VERB> contains the empty matrix
      <VERB>[]</VERB> then the different browser choice possibilities are
      displayed (so that you can enter the 2 instructions:
      <VERB>global  %browsehelp; %browsehelp=[]</VERB> for changing of browser !). 
      As generally different browsers have differents calling sequences, if
      your favorite one is not in the list you may  have to adapt the <VERB>browsehelp</VERB> scilab 
      which can be found in <VERB>SCI/macros/util/browsehelp.sci</VERB>.</P> 

    <P> See  <LINK>man</LINK> for more explanation on how to write new help
      pages .</P> 
  </DESCRIPTION>
  <SEE_ALSO>
    <SEE_ALSO_ITEM>
      <LINK>apropos</LINK>
    </SEE_ALSO_ITEM>
    <SEE_ALSO_ITEM>
      <LINK>man</LINK>
    </SEE_ALSO_ITEM>
  </SEE_ALSO>
</MAN>
