RE: How does this software work??

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>If you're Leif you probably dump the PTF, glance at the machine
>code, realise immediately that it's safe, and incidentally find
>material for the next chapter of your e-book.

LOL!

>For the rest of us we check the various sources of information such
>as mi400@midrange.com . Someone somewhere will be applying
>the PTFs to see which of them appear to break Fast/400. Failing that
>someone somewhere will be less cautious than us and will post a
>plaintive "Hey, I installed PTF XXXXXXX and now Fast/400 ain't
working".

Let's say I install FAST400.  Six months later, I leave the company for
a better job; someone new comes in to take my spot.  How's that person
going to know about FAST400?  How many people in the AS/400 community
participate in forums such as this?  Now, FAST400 breaks after
installing a PTF.  Who gets hollered at?  IBM.   How many people in the
AS/400 community participate in forums such as this?  Percentage wise,
it's nearly nil.

>I would also expect Tiger Tools themselves to keep a close eye on the
>PTFs and issue warnings to their customers. It would certainly be in
>their interests to do so.

Again, I wonder.  "Hi, this is Tiger Tools.  You know that FAST400
software you bought two months ago for $xxxxx?  IBM just issued a HIPER
PTF (which BTW fixes a critical problem) that disables FAST400.  If
FAST400 truly is "fixing" your system's performance, your performance
will nosedive after applying this PTF.  Your call, customer, either do
not install the HIPER PTF or you'll get a "fair portion" refund and
you'll have to go spend 10 times what you did on FAST400 on IBM's
"features" to get your performance back to snuff."  Not the kind of call
I'd want to make.  In the end, I guess I'd expect Tiger Tools to warn
customers before buying that this is a "hack" on unsupported IBM
internals, that is subject to change without any or little notice.
Don't think that will happen, though.

Dan Bale
IT - AS/400
Handleman Company
248-362-4400  Ext. 4952
        D.Bale@Handleman.com