That's an excellent point! "Documentation? What documentation??" My wife bought a neck massager that has an 18-page manual, and I was astounded that it was that long in this modren day and age.
The shift from "Here's the IBM doc library for <x>" to "Just Google it" has also led to reduced focus on structuring the documentation library, I fear. That's surely not fixable: doc is seen as a pure cost, I think. IBM is not going to rehire the legions of Information Developers that used to exist. -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Lennie Bradshaw Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 2:06 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Newer SYSPROGs (was Re: Political topics) Sadly, much software on other platforms today has far less documentation. This leads to low expectations that an answer might be found. Instead, answers are found in forums. Perhaps we need to emphasise that IBM mainframe systems manuals are rather more comprehensive and can be used as a first source of information. Lennie -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of David Purdy Sent: 15 October 2025 18:25 To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Newer SYSPROGs (was Re: Political topics) Our first response to a question is;What did the manual say? Our second response is:Don't use ChatGPT On Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 12:59:09 PM EDT, Jousma, David <[email protected]> wrote: Changed the subject to keep Darren’s feathers down… As entrenched system programmers most of us are from decades of experience, we really need to take a softer tone that some here have mentioned. First off, let’s not scare away newbies from the platform, but sometimes just a pointer to which manual they can go looking at is all that is needed. My mentor used to ask me what I was looking at that I didn’t understand. And if I replied that I hadn’t looked, well then he pointed me to the manual. For me, I’ve learned more about everything else by searching the manual for what I really wanted. After awhile it all starts to fit together. _______________________________ Dave Jousma Vice President | Director, Technology Engineering Fifth Third Bank | 1830 East Paris Ave, SE | Grand Rapids, MI 49546 From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 at 12:44 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Political topics CAUTION EXTERNAL EMAIL This message came from outside your organization. DO NOT open attachments or click on links from unknown senders or unexpected emails. Report Suspicious<https://us-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com/EWT/v1/MwwqYLOC6b6whF7V!odOGFh_lgiBhHko4rfivV4VzOYlSakFScohREKt1lGITdYXTA3WpPdeyc3ve7qYrUUIMoYKt8dq79EP_rOs4II3PnV-64oPJWXSHVJdG0BRgyS3QNjll33pZ7KDU7U5tLInALgIXLoigtw$> I used to phrase it as "Which part of the explanation is unclear"; maybe they legit did RTFM and the information was ambiguous or flat wrong. Yes, that last does happen, and I can't reaonably expect a user to recognize and deal with it. -- Shmuel (Seymour J.) Metz https://urldefense.com/v3/__http://mason.gmu.edu/*smetz3__;fg!!MwwqYLOC6b6whF7V!nnbo8essFOHBsvihlavRW_OmYqJjnXkV9_AJ2xi6-MtH1HpuaWh1ei55btIwI8zepSAALYak-AHutQ9P$ עַם יִשְׂרָאֵל חַי נֵ֣צַח יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל לֹ֥א יְשַׁקֵּ֖ר ________________________________________ From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> on behalf of Jay Maynard <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, October 15, 2025 9:34 AM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: Political topics External Message: Use Caution I try hard to always say which FM and where the information is in it when saying RTFM. On Wed, Oct 15, 2025 at 8:06 AM Seymour J Metz <[email protected]> wrote: > Always verify that the relevant information is in TFM before saying RTFM. > In fact, verify that it is not hidden away. > -- Jay Maynard ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 This e-mail transmission contains information that is confidential and may be privileged. It is intended only for the addressee(s) named above. If you receive this e-mail in error, please do not read, copy or disseminate it in any manner. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. 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