Re: Why no header files for RPG? -- RPG400-L

Jon,

I understand that you, as one of the writers, want to see more reviews. But there are a number of problems:

1. Before it makes sense to review a redbook (or any book, for that matter) you have to read it. Now, for most redbooks I could pinpoint the moment I start reading it, but when have I finished? Most redbooks are not the type of books you read in one go. You read a bit, experiment a bit, do some normal work, check you email, answer a few phone calls. If the redbook is interesting enough or you think the subject is important enough, you get back to it. Otherwise it starts gathering dust on the hard drive.

2. Information overload. Apart from the fact that we have our normal work to do, we are constantly being bombarded with new information; new releases with new documentation; new redbooks. Trying to keep up with WDSC is almost a fulltime job.

3. Reward. What's the incentive for me to review it? The only effect I see is that it gets some stars in the list of redbooks. Personally, I never selected a redbook based on reviews; I only look at the subject. I might get interested when a redbook gets mentioned in one of the mailing lists. You seem to imply that it matters to IBM how the redbook gets rated, but how would we know? How could we even guess how we could influence IBM in any way? We have FRED, we have shopping lists, we can rate redbooks, we used to have comment forms in the documentation, but what we see is that IBM is turning a badly marketed but very reliable application system into one of the eServer offerings. And we get a roadmap which tells us that for the user interface we have a choice between 5250 (Scylla) and browser (Charybdis). (Was this a rant? Hm, suppose it was.)

All in all, if you search the redbook list for RPG, you get 17 hits. 8 out of 17 are reviewed. The sorcerer's guide gets 5 stars, based on 29 reviews; the runner-up (WDSC V5.0) gets 4.5 stars based on 7 reviews. That's a knockout.

Joep Beckeringh

Jon Paris wrote:

<rant>

I just visited and was really sad to note that so few people have bothered
to review it!  This thing gets downloaded _thousands_ of times each year in
_four_ years only _29_ people have bothered to review it!  What a truly
apathetic bunch we must be!  Hundreds of people are willing to bitch on
forums like this but frankly why the hell should IBM bother if only 29
people give a .....

</rant>