RE: IBM Documentation (was CA Express and Life Certainties)

There is a new reader for bookmanager documents written in Java.  You can
get it from the IBM Raleigh site.  Right now it has a pretty lame search
engine but they promise to make it better.  In general I concur.  It is
moderately hard to find things in the AS/400 documentation.  The use of
bookmanager format was great at the time but is now outmoded and the
applications have not kept up.  Switch to PDF, create indexes and get on
with it.  I use Acrobat 4 and it works just fine for me.  Even the notes
feature works.

Richard Jackson
Richard Jackson and Associates Ltd.
IBM Business Partner
mailto:richardjackson@richardjackson.net
http://www.richardjacksonltd.com
Telephone: 1 (303) 808-8058


-|-----Original Message-----
-|From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com
-|[mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On Behalf Of Jeff Crosby
-|Sent: Thursday, November 16, 2000 7:52 AM
-|To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
-|Subject: Re: IBM Documentation (was CA Express and Life Certainties)
-|
-|
-|DAsmussen@aol.com wrote:
-|
-|> 1. IBM will always produce a harder to use emulation product than third
-|> parties writing to its own platforms.
-|> 2. IBM will always use 2-5+ manuals to describe what other
-|vendors usually
-|> distill into one, providing no links between them.
-|> 3. On the odd chance you have a choice of only two IBM manuals
-|for a specific
-|> subject, you will always choose the "User's Guide" when you need the
-|> "Reference" and vice versa.
-|> 4.  Unless your problem is either very simple or very old, you
-|will always
-|> have to come to midrange-l in order to find the answer you seek.
-|
-|I cannot answer your subsequent question, but I can identify with and
-|empathize (is that a word?) with what you said.  Big time.  The
-|frustration in your post comes through loud & clear.  I can't tell you
-|how many times I've wanted to look up an answer to something, let's say
-|Client Access connectivity, and wondered, should I look in the Client
-|Access bookshelf?  Communications bookshelf?  Then, after not finding
-|it, I end up searching _all_ books and getting umpteen hits, and nothing
-|really addresses what I want.  So I go to the redbooks and repeat.
-|Still no luck.  So I ask the question here and somebody posts an answer
-|citing a particular manual and says "Next time RTFM!" <g>
-|
-|Sometimes I think the IBM manual writers spend too much time trying to
-|teach or lead you to determining how to do something, instead of just
-|saying "Here's how you do X".
-|
-|--
-|-Jeff
-|The opinions expressed are my own and not necessarily
-|the opinion of my company.  Unless I say so.
-|+---
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