I admit it, I'm lazy. I love the entire bookshelf search feature. However, more and more books are available only in PDF format. I'm unhappy (stronger words would need to censored) that I cannot search an entire extended bookshelf on my on PC. Several years ago, I complained to IBM about the lack of a extended bookshelf search and that more and more books where available only in PDF format. I was told that IBM was working on a solution to that (Product Information Centers). And I have a feeling that IBM is considering making manuals available only via that venue. That way IBM could monitor what you read and provide you customized information (i.e. ads).
Don -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Charles Mills Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 4:43 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Mislocated doc (was: ... STOW Initialize?) > One consulted the relevant high-quality master index Or, lacking even enough of a clue to know what "sub-product" one needed to use, the "KWIC" (Key Word in Context) index to (believe it or not!) *all* IBM OS/360 publications. On a related topic, am I the only person who accesses the IBM manuals primarily through the Windows "IBM Softcopy Reader"? It has a very useful "entire bookshelf" search feature (which is in fact how I finally managed to track down the doc for IDCAMS DELETE). However, the search feature only works on "BookManager" type shelves, not "Extended" (which is what the rest of the world calls "PDF") shelves. I understand that "BookManager" books are going away in favor of only PDFs -- is that right? (I notice I have only PDF documents for DB2 V10 although perhaps that is some oversight on my part.) Assuming I am not confused on "BookManager" shelves going away, how does one now do an "all-bookshelf" search? Only via the Web? Charles -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of John Gilmore Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 12:37 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Mislocated doc (was: ... STOW Initialize?) Anciently, there was help in addressing the sort of problem Charles confronted. One consulted the relevant high-quality master index, which told one which publications treated a topic and provided the page numbers of these treatments. Master indices have not been eliminated definitively, but IBM does seem to have cut back very significantly on their production. The relevant one here: DFSMS/MVS Master Index, GC26-4904-00 has not been updated since September 24, 1999, the date of its original publication. Why, I wonder, has this happened? Are they judged too bookish in the age of the internet? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
