[Cross-posted to IBM-Main and CICS-L]
Ronald Mullins wrote:
CICS Information Center is a server base method for accessing CICS
manuals. BookManager is a TSO base method for accessing CICS manuals.
Not quite true. See below ...
Information Center comes free with CICSTS 3.1. My z/OS team tells me
there is a change for the CICSTS 3.1 bookshelves.
So my question is IBM pushing us toward Information Center?
Will BookManager be eventually phase out?
There are two competing documentation technologies being delivered by
IBM right now. They are: 1) Eclipse-based "Information Centers" that
serve up articles and 2) Library Server-based "Library Centers" that
serve up books in both BookManager softcopy and Adobe Acrobat PDFs
format. For examples of each, see:
http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cicsts31/index.jsp
http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/bookmgr_OS390/libraryserver/zosv1r7/
Library Centers are supported by IBM's Library Server for z/OS and
Library Server for multiplatforms. IMHO, the functionality of book-based
Library Centers is -- at present -- vastly superior to what you get with
the article-based, Eclipse Information Centers being tried by CICS.
We use IBM's Library Server for z/OS on our Intranet. It provides a
central repository for all of our documentation serving up both
BookManager books and PDF documents. The repository is managed and
updated over the Internet using IBM's Softcopy Librarian, accessible
directly from TSO/E sessions under z/OS, from any of our other
mainframes, laptops, desktop workstations, and even PDAs! BookManager's
search capabilities are without equal and PDF documents render glyphs
precisely and look great when printed. With Library Server V3.1 -- new
with z/OS 1.7, IBM has released a new Acrobat plug-in that supports
BookManager-style searching for PDF documents. This capability was
sorely needed to make PDF documents really useful and IBM has met the
challenge. They now plan to roll this functionality down to the softcopy
reader (SCR) environment as well. (Make sure you have PTFs UK06572,
UK07335, and UK07558 applied before you try the PDF search facility with
the new Library Server.)
IMHO, Eclipse-based information just can't compete with these
capabilities. It's more on par with Windoze HTML help or Micro$oft's
technet web site. It can be a /very/ frustrating environment, especially
when trying to use the search "capabilities". By default all of the Info
Centers shown in the Contents pane are searched and it's quite tedious
to change this. The window that pops up when you click "Advanced Search"
can't be resized and you have to manually deselect one-by-one all of the
Info Centers you don't want to search by clicking into a tiny little box
next to each one. Ridiculous! So instead you just plow ahead with your
search hoping for the best and end up with literally dozens and dozens
of Search Results each denoted by nothing more than a topic heading with
no indication whatsoever as to within which Info Center the reference
points. This means you often have to click them all one by one to find
the ones that pertain to the task at hand. (Don't take my word for it.
Try it for yourself using the above link. It's even worse than Adobe
Acrobat's so-called "search".) In addition, the search engine itself is
/extremely/ weak as it is string based searching rather than IBM's
patented linguistical searching. (For information on this see
http://www.ibm.com/software/applications/office/bkmgr/patented.html).
Those touting the Eclipse-based Information Centers talk about how they
can more easily create so-called "learning paths" and "road maps" with
article-based information than with book-based information. I don't
disagree. It might be slightly easier to develop these materials using
articles, but I'm perfectly happy with IBM's efforts thus far to deliver
similar "newbie" content using existing book-based documentation
technologies. Example: the z/OS Migration books that have been developed
in recent years are excellent! And I've seen some other useful
introductory books being written as well.
Putting information into Eclipse means I can't access it without a PC! I
want to be able to read any z/OS doc from my TSO/E session if I wish, I
like the option of being able to print a complete book (PDF form of
course) and read it the old-fashioned way, and I definitely don't want
to lose the tremendous reference tool I have using BookManager-based
search capabilities -- even when searching PDF documents! Give me a
Library Center over an Information Center any day of the week!
--
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| Edward E. Jaffe | |
| Mgr, Research & Development | [EMAIL PROTECTED] |
| Phoenix Software International | Tel: (310) 338-0400 x318 |
| 5200 W Century Blvd, Suite 800 | Fax: (310) 338-0801 |
| Los Angeles, CA 90045 | http://www.phoenixsoftware.com |
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