Once upon a time I opened a manual at the index or TOC page...
Today I do (or wish to do) a tag search to find the best fitting JCL
example, some code snippet, an illustration.
Then I look at how it is built and test my understanding how it does what it
is supposed to do. I take note of warnings, restrictions, glance at the list
of "See also / Related". Often it stops there. I got my answer !
But typically I click my way through to where one or the other of the
operands is explained in detail. If that raises more questions than it
answers I drift away from "Reference" looking for "User Guide"ance. Having
loaded up what was missing in my head I am either reassured or I am going
back looking for more or other examples...
IBM manuals in general, they are the best, period! All follow the same
general outline, meant to be read top-down with horizotal entry points
listed in the TOC or Index.
But I
*USE* them much more often
than I
*READ* them, as I probably should !
Thus: use vs. read. In my view the HLASM community would be best served by a
moderated wiki which combines *meaningful* codes snippets with exerpts from
the RM and PoOp to explain why and how the [tag tag] featured in the example
do it, with links and textual reference to other pages, examples, RMs and
UGs, including system macros' (zOS et all) - especially some "odd-ball"
ones.
My 2 bits. I'd love to have an HLASM-in-Context Collection *NEXT* to the
existing HLASM Book Shelf.
Andreas F. Geissbuehler
AFG Consultants Inc.
http://www.afgc-inc.com/
