DCF: Can it live again?

[Bob Rinda]

Tony is correct. Softcopy Reader consists of a Java GUI wrapped around (via 
JNI) the platform-specific binaries which access the proprietary BookManager 
document format.  The Shelf Organizer component of Softcopy Reader contains 
limited "BookManager-like" support for indexed extended shelves of PDFs which 
have been enabled with an IBM Advanced Linguistic Search index.   

The last Linux packaging of Softcopy Reader was V3.7 back in 2007.  The most 
recent Windows packaging was V4.0 in 2012.

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg27018849

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)]

In
,
on 12/31/2013
   at 03:40 PM, Tony Harminc  said:

>I'm not aware of any dispute.

?

>The OP

Mentioned "the core Bookie code".

>Out of the blue

See above.
 
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)]

In <660c973e-4a5c-4e6c-9e94-3301602f9...@yahoo.com>, on 12/31/2013
   at 04:10 PM, Scott Ford  said:

>Is the DCF format for Book Manager available ?

The documentation of the BookManager/BUILD tag set is available; the
macros that implement it are copyrighted. Similarly for BookMaster and
the GML Starter Set.

I'm not aware of any documentation for the document format used by
BookManager/READ.
 
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Scott Ford]

Tony,

For sure. Surprising IBM doesn't want to release a format so a ISV can develop 
a new or better product for Book Manager, but who am I a mere mortal...

Scott ford
www.identityforge.com
from my IPAD

'Infinite wisdom through infinite means'


> On Dec 31, 2013, at 4:45 PM, Tony Harminc  wrote:
> 
>> On 31 December 2013 16:10, Scott Ford  wrote:
>> Tony,
>> 
>> Is the DCF format for Book Manager available ? So someone could rewrite code 
>> to read it and process it ?
> 
> Not that I know of. That's really what I'd like IBM to provide, but I
> think it's unlikely. Presumably it could be reverse engineered (from
> the many existing documents; I don't mean reverse engineering IBM's
> code), but that's a big project.
> 
> Tony H.
> 
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 31 December 2013 16:10, Scott Ford  wrote:
> Tony,
>
> Is the DCF format for Book Manager available ? So someone could rewrite code 
> to read it and process it ?

Not that I know of. That's really what I'd like IBM to provide, but I
think it's unlikely. Presumably it could be reverse engineered (from
the many existing documents; I don't mean reverse engineering IBM's
code), but that's a big project.

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Scott Ford]

Tony,

Is the DCF format for Book Manager available ? So someone could rewrite code to 
read it and process it ?

Scott ford
www.identityforge.com
from my IPAD

'Infinite wisdom through infinite means'


> On Dec 31, 2013, at 3:40 PM, Tony Harminc  wrote:
> 
> On 31 December 2013 14:34, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)
>  wrote:
>> on 12/30/2013 at 03:29 PM, Tony Harminc  said:
>> 
>>> It seems plausible that at least some of the code would be common
>>> with other platform implementations.
>> 
>> Are you talking about BookManager/READ? That's not what's under dispute.
> 
> I'm not aware of any dispute. The OP asked about "JAVA Bookie". An
> IBMer posted a link to the supposedly "Java-based" softcopy reader for
> Linux. I pointed out that the core processing is not Java (and
> therefore is not portable by the user), but rather is i86 binaries. I
> guessed that those are written in C, but it's just a guess; I haven't
> examined them. Out of the blue you then said "There are BookManager
> products on windoze, but I'm not aware of any that accept DCF,
> BookMaster or BookManager tags", which may well be true, but which as
> far as I can see is wholly irrelevant to the discussion.
> 
> Perhaps some post of yours that would clarify what you're trying to
> say has gone into thin air...
> 
> Happy New Year.
> 
> Tony H.
> 
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 31 December 2013 14:34, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)
 wrote:
> on 12/30/2013 at 03:29 PM, Tony Harminc  said:
>
>>It seems plausible that at least some of the code would be common
>>with other platform implementations.
>
> Are you talking about BookManager/READ? That's not what's under dispute.

I'm not aware of any dispute. The OP asked about "JAVA Bookie". An
IBMer posted a link to the supposedly "Java-based" softcopy reader for
Linux. I pointed out that the core processing is not Java (and
therefore is not portable by the user), but rather is i86 binaries. I
guessed that those are written in C, but it's just a guess; I haven't
examined them. Out of the blue you then said "There are BookManager
products on windoze, but I'm not aware of any that accept DCF,
BookMaster or BookManager tags", which may well be true, but which as
far as I can see is wholly irrelevant to the discussion.

Perhaps some post of yours that would clarify what you're trying to
say has gone into thin air...

Happy New Year.

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)]

In
,
on 12/30/2013
   at 03:29 PM, Tony Harminc  said:

>It seems plausible that at least some of the code would be common
>with other platform implementations. 

Are you talking about BookManager/READ? That's not what's under
dispute.
 
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 ISO position; see  
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 30 December 2013 08:25, Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)
 wrote:
> on 12/29/2013 at 06:03 PM, Tony Harminc  said:
>
>>I imagine it's written in C, since it runs on Windows and Linux on i86,
>
> Cite? There are BookManager products on windoze, but I'm not aware of
> any that accept DCF, BookMaster or BookManager tags.

A quick browse of the mainframe executables I have (EOX and EOY
prefix) shows translator entries from 5688-216, which is AD/Cycle
C/370 V1R2. It seems plausible that at least some of the code would be
common with other platform implementations. I have no expertise in
deciphering Windows or Linux on i86 executables, but if you'd like to
give it a try, the "Java" Softcopy Reader is downloadable from IBM at
no charge.

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)]

In
,
on 12/29/2013
   at 06:03 PM, Tony Harminc  said:

>I imagine it's written in C, since it runs on Windows and Linux on
>i86, 

Cite? There are BookManager products on windoze, but I'm not aware of
any that accept DCF, BookMaster or BookManager tags.
 
-- 
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 ISO position; see  
We don't care. We don't have to care, we're Congress.
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 29 December 2013 18:17, Charles Mills  wrote:
> Java I thought ...

No - as I said earlier, the "Java" versions of Softcopy Reader et al
are just wrappers. The real work gets done in platform-specific
executable code in DLLs or UNIXy shared objects. I haven't looked, but
I'd be amazed if the zArch products are entirely Java either.

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Charles Mills]

Java I thought ...

Charles
Composed on a mobile: please excuse my brevity 

Tony Harminc  wrote:

>On 29 December 2013 09:31, Paul Gilmartin  wrote:
>>>Now since IBM has killed off Softcopy Reader and friends, maybe they'd
>>>like to release the core Bookie code as open source, as they did for
>>>APL\360 and OORexx. Heh...
>>>
>> So that we could run it on Hercules?  Or, is it (even worse) PL/S?
>
>I imagine it's written in C, since it runs on Windows and Linux on
>i86, and z/OS and z/VM on zArch. I suppose they could've implemented
>it multiple times; it's old enough that that wasn't as silly as it
>sounds now. I'm sure a quick look at the binaries would yield the
>secret to a knowledgeable person.
>
>Regardless, no need for Hercules or any other emulator.
>
>Tony H.
>
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 29 December 2013 09:31, Paul Gilmartin  wrote:
>>Now since IBM has killed off Softcopy Reader and friends, maybe they'd
>>like to release the core Bookie code as open source, as they did for
>>APL\360 and OORexx. Heh...
>>
> So that we could run it on Hercules?  Or, is it (even worse) PL/S?

I imagine it's written in C, since it runs on Windows and Linux on
i86, and z/OS and z/VM on zArch. I suppose they could've implemented
it multiple times; it's old enough that that wasn't as silly as it
sounds now. I'm sure a quick look at the binaries would yield the
secret to a knowledgeable person.

Regardless, no need for Hercules or any other emulator.

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Paul Gilmartin]

On Sat, 28 Dec 2013 21:40:22 -0500, Tony Harminc wrote:
>
>Now since IBM has killed off Softcopy Reader and friends, maybe they'd
>like to release the core Bookie code as open source, as they did for
>APL\360 and OORexx. Heh...
> 
So that we could run it on Hercules?  Or, is it (even worse) PL/S?

-- gil

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Tony Harminc]

On 28 December 2013 00:16, Timothy Sipples  wrote:
> Do you mean this Java-based version?
>
> http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24000251

Thing is, it's not really "Java based". It's a Java wrapper for
(presumably) the same old core binaries for Intel that the Windows
version uses. You can't run it on e.g. z/OS UNIX, zLinux, or for that
matter any OS on any platform other than i86.

Now since IBM has killed off Softcopy Reader and friends, maybe they'd
like to release the core Bookie code as open source, as they did for
APL\360 and OORexx. Heh...

Tony H.

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Elardus Engelbrecht]

Timothy Sipples wrote:

>>Do you mean this Java-based version?
>>http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24000251

Page is dated 2005. Softcopy Reader for Linux V3.7 is dated 2007.

But I must be fair: One of the pre-requisites is RedHat Linux 9.0 or later, but 
...
... latest stable version is '9 alias Shrike / March 31, 2003'

Strange. Is there not a version compatible with latest versions of Linux 
implementations? (with Linux stable version is 3.12 as of 2013)


Shane Ginnane wrote:

>Not likely I would think - that was bloody awful under Linux. 

More bloody awful under Windoze XP SP3. ;-D

>IBM obviously believed in that other Java mantra - "write once, run nowhere".

LMFAO. ;-)

More funnies before year version 2013 expires? ;-)

Groete / Greetings
Elardus Engelbrecht

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shane Ginnane]

On Sat, 28 Dec 2013 13:16:37 +0800, Timothy Sipples wrote:

>Do you mean this Java-based version?
>
>http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24000251

Not likely I would think - that was bloody awful under Linux. IBM obviously 
believed in that other Java mantra - "write once, run nowhere".

Shane ...

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Timothy Sipples]

Do you mean this Java-based version?

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg24000251


Timothy Sipples
GMU VCT Architect Executive (Based in Singapore)
E-Mail: sipp...@sg.ibm.com

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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[zMan]

I think you just answered your own question...


On Fri, Dec 27, 2013 at 4:49 PM, Ed Finnell  wrote:

> Whatever happened to the JAVA Bookie? I tried it on a new Win 95 machine
> and it was atrocious. It would start then go away then a few minutes later
> it
>  would come up and vanish again. Never tried it again.
>
>
> In a message dated 12/27/2013 3:17:00 P.M. Central Standard Time,
> shmuel+ibm-m...@patriot.net writes:
>
> Your  aspirations are modest; what I want is a full port of DCF,
> BookMaster and  BookManager to Linux or  OS/2.
>
>
>
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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Ed Finnell]

Whatever happened to the JAVA Bookie? I tried it on a new Win 95 machine  
and it was atrocious. It would start then go away then a few minutes later it 
 would come up and vanish again. Never tried it again.
 
 
In a message dated 12/27/2013 3:17:00 P.M. Central Standard Time,  
shmuel+ibm-m...@patriot.net writes:

Your  aspirations are modest; what I want is a full port of DCF,
BookMaster and  BookManager to Linux or  OS/2.



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Re: DCF: Can it live again?

[Shmuel Metz (Seymour J.)]

In
<435b77ba27fc254099b1763e498def664ca...@va1exc02.snaads.sinenomine.net>,
on 04/16/2008
   at 09:31 AM, David Boyes  said:

>The key to what I want is the Bookmaster tag set,

>From what you wrote further on, you really mean BookManager; the
BookManager/BUILD tag set is a superset of BookMaster.

>Bookmaster/BUILD VM

ITYM BookManager/BUILD VM; the is no BookMater/BUIL or
BookMaster/READ.

>It'd still be nice to have something on Linux that understands 
>1403 listings, though. 

There are definitely programs out there that understand ANSI carriage
control; I'm not sure about machine carriage control.

Your aspirations are modest; what I want is a full port of DCF,
BookMaster and BookManager to Linux or OS/2.
 
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 ISO position; see  
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