I switched to softcopy around 1994, after using (and updating - remember that experience?) paper manuals for the previous 20 years. I generally found that the paper manuals were great if you already had some experience, had a mentor to point you in the right direction, or were looking at program listings you couldn't quite fathom. As a pure learning tool, they were pretty much incomprehensible, which is why there was a market for how-to books, like Murach's and Gary deWard Brown's. The softcopy versions had the advantage of a search function, and now of course there's the Infocenter and Google, both of which will give you an answer to most questions if you know how to winnow down the search results. David de Jongh
> -----Original Message----- > From: IBM Mainframe Assembler List [mailto:ASSEMBLER- > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Tom Marchant > Sent: Wednesday, June 08, 2011 8:52 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: IBM manuals > > On Tue, 7 Jun 2011 10:27:16 -0700, John Walker <[email protected]> > wrote: > > >I can't speak for OLD IBM manuals, but I CAN speak for current ones. > > Can you really? > > >You are inundated in spurious and unnecessary things in all the RIGHT > >places, > > That has not been my experience. I find very little unnecessary information > in the manuals. > > >but frequently the important information is in very obscure places. > > In most cases I find the manuals to be pretty well organized, though there is > sometimes a piece of critical information that should be given a more > prominent place than what it has. I do submit Readers Comment Forms > when necessary and it does make a difference. > > >one can't say reading the manual does anything but tell you where the > >information you need is NOT at. > > I use IBM manuals every day and I can usually find what I am looking for > without too much trouble. The softcopy reader makes it easy. > > >As such, I've given up on IBM manuals 20 years ago. > > If you've "given up on IBM manuals 20 years ago," how can you pretend to > be qualified to comment on the current manuals? > > BTW, when you post, you should use a meaningful subject line. > > -- > Tom Marchant
