I'm still here, though not posting much these days. I pulled out my source file -- about 1 1/2 inches thick, including SHARE SSD (SHARE Secretary's Distribution, as opposed to solid state device!) #349 from August 1986, and SHARE 64 Session #0042, "All Your Fears are Sourceless" (report of the VM Source Committee). But I don't think Wikipedia accepts my file cabinet as secondary source (that word again!). Plus clippings, etc. I'll see whether anything useful I have is available online -- though it's likely all from 1980s so might not be conclusive proof of current status.
On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:23:09 -0400, Tony Harminc <t...@harminc.net> wrote: >On Thu, 14 Apr 2022 at 07:37, Seymour J Metz <sme...@gmu.edu> wrote: > >> I'm editing the wikipedia [[Operating system]] article, and another editor >> has challenged the sentence "The logic manuals for their contemporary >> descendants, z/VM, z/VSE and z/VM, are not available to the general public." >> What are the relevant URLs for IBM's policy? Thanks. > >The OCO (or more subtle) status of current software is in the >announcement letters. Using IBM URLs as a reference is a bit of a >trap, because IBM so frequently removes and rearranges things, and >seems to have a global robots.txt that prohibits pretty much >everything. > >It's not obvious to me that the existence of published logic manuals >aligns with the OCO status of a product. IIRC many products that were >not OCO have still had logic manuals withdrawn in favour of >"diagnostic guides" and the like. At the same time some of those >diagnostic books are remarkably detailed, and the logic is described >or can be inferred even though the source code is not available. > >I also seem to remember some discussion of this on this very list, >including the definitions of terms like "restricted materials of IBM", >"object code only", and so on. I'm not finding them in a quick search, >but one thing that did come up is a 2018 post from Gabe Goldberg, who >said he had "my OCO file -- a decade or so worth of material >documenting IBM's folly removing source code ("Object Code Only" for >those who didn't live through it). " Might be worth contacting him. >I'm not sure he's still active on this list, but g...@gabegold.com >looks to be current. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to lists...@listserv.ua.edu with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN