Re: V3R7 Softcopy Library -- MIDRANGE-L

At 22:23 03/24/2000 , Keith Carpenter wrote:
>Too bad there isn't a newer (win32) version of BookManager Reader.
>But I find that even the 16bit one is better than the web version.
>
>As others have pointed out, not all computers are connected to the web.
>It's usually when you are having problems (like no network connection)
>that you need the books the most.

I've had no problem with the html books. Searches have been fast and easy. 
Of course most of my work is limited to just a few books, but Its like 
anything else. You need to work with it a bit.

I usually use the category bookshelves page to get to the area I need. Last 
week I needed the parameter list for QMHSNDPM. I opened the "System 
Programming Support" page. I didn't see anything promising on the list of 
commonly used books, so I scrolled to the bottom of the page and clicked on 
the "Search V4R2 System Programming Support Bookshelf " link (we're still 
supporting V4R2). I tried searching for "message" and got no hits, so I 
scrolled down the list of manuals and found "OS/400 Message Handling APIs 
V4R2", opened it and easily found what I needed. Just out of curiosity, I 
went back to the search and tried looking for "Message". It found the 
manual right away, so the search is case sensitive (BAD IBM, BAD). It also 
only looks at titles, names and doc numbers (UNIMPRESSIVE), so you need to 
use title case, and doesn't use a synonym list. (It didn't find 
"Messaging", not that I really expected it to given the other limitation.) 
Once you develop the work-around strategies to replace the ones you used 
with book manager, you can get on with your life. I remember similar 
grousing a few years back when paper manuals were replaced with CDs. We 
did, however, lose our web connection for a few hours last week. I carry a 
CD in my briefcase.

I agree that there are many smaller clients that don't have a full time 
internet connection, and who pay their bills regularly with real coin of 
the realm. Back in the bad old days, I used to load a few of the most 
common manuals on my laptop for just those occasions (laptop CD readers 
were hard to come by then). You can still do that. There are links on the 
list pages that allow you to download the manuals in html or pdf format. 
You can even print the pdf books if you like. It's not a perfect solution, 
but it works pretty well. Times change and so do the tools we use. The 
changes don't always make life easier for us either. This one makes IBM 
more efficient. We can either adapt or sit back and fossilize. Personally, 
I'm no ready to become a dinosaur yet.
Pete Hall
pbhall@execpc.com
http://www.execpc.com/~pbhall
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