Roger Bolan wrote:

>I think the best way to use IBM Knowledge Center is to forget about books and 
>bookshelves when looking for information.  Just search for the specific terms 
>or keywords or phrases (in quotes) that relate to the information you want.  
>Once you have found the appropriate "hit" in the search results, then you can 
>expand from there to find out what book and bookshelf you are in to read the 
>related material.

Peter Hunkeler wrote:

>Sometimes yes, sometimes no. I very often if not mostly know what book to open 
>to get the information I need. Having to invoke a search and then scan the 
>search result may take more time. To give up confirmed habit takes time. 
>Nevertheless, as long as a TOC is provided, it should help me find what I'm 
>looking for quickly. 

I agree with both. Many information are spread across bookshelves.

For example, I would really like contents of 'Cryptographic Services Bookshelf' 
be in 'Security Server Bookshelf' or

... or thinking the other way - split up HSM, SMS and RMM books into 3 
different shelves.

But, sometimes I just need a little TOC to see what are available, say like 
this TOC example in 'MVS Programming: Authorized Assembler Services Reference, 
Volume <whatever>" :

IXGBRWSE -- Browse/read a log stream            
IXGCONN -- Connect/disconnect to log stream     
IXGDELET -- Deleting log data from a log stream 
IXGWRITE -- Write log data to a log stream      

or 

MCSOPER -- Manage extended MCS operations        
MCSOPMSG -- Retrieve MCS operator messages       
MGCR -- Issue an internal START or REPLY command 
MGCRE -- Issue internal commands                 

Above descriptions are just what I need, because I'm not always sure about the 
spelling of those macros. (IXGDELET for example)

Sometimes, I just search www.ibm.com and then see what are listed. Then I 
refine the search.

Yes, I see a message in one bookie, but the detailed explanation and utility to 
use is in another book or other bookshelf. Not really that productive, but I 
don't complain.

Years ago, I was asked to merge the bookshelves of DB2 and CICS. I told them, 
no, because, when I get a new set of bookies, I had to redo all the merging.

Habits, good or bad, are difficult to change! ;-)

Groete / Greetings
Elardus Engelbrecht

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