| Greetings! (more contact info below:)
Company Name : Dharma Systems
Contact Name : Dave Partridge
Phone : (603) 886-1400 x-12
Fax :
Email : "[email protected]"
Date/Time in : 13-MAY-1997 16:22
Originally entered by : SWIERKOWSKI
SPE center : PAG
Category : OTHER
OS Version : OpenVMS Alpha V7.1
System H/W : AlphaStation 255
Basically between BNU and Bookreader, Dave is not happy. Here's what we
discovered playing around:
- He is able to access individual books (".BKB" files) in the Mar '97 Alpha ODL
using Bookreader directly, *BUT* the old-style ".DECW$BOOKSHELF" that tie
everything together aren't on the Mar '97 Alpha ODL so you have to open
individual ".BKB" files (guessing at the filenames).
- From what I've read, BNU invokes Bookreader (sort of?) but BNU can't process
old-style ".DECW$BOOKSHELF" files correctly anyway.
- I did some research and the old-style ".DECW$BOOKSHELF" are on the Mar '97
VAX ODL in the form of a saveset. This allows you to bypass the use of BNU
for the LP docs altogther (on VAX). A similar saveset is *not* on the Mar '97
Alpha ODL! Ain't consistency wunnerful?
- Of course the main "OpenVMS Alpha" operating system distribution CD still
has the old-style Bookreader files. You have to use Bookreader if you want
to read OS docs or BNU if you want to read LP docs since BNU doesn't handle
Bookreader shelf files properly. Fair enough, dumb to have to use two
different viewers for all OpenVMS related docs, but livable, except...
- Dave was curious what happens if you need something off of disk2 (of 2), so
he un'MOUNT'ed disk1, 'MOUNT'ed disk2 but afterwards *sometimes* BNU errors
out with a message that includes a U*ix-style file spec indicating it is still
looking for something on disk1. There is no [SETUP]SETUP.COM on disk2, so
he can't re-run it to see if that fixes BNU back up to handle the second disk.
- I tried installing BNU on a testbed and since SETUP.COM knows the Mar '97
Alpha ODL has two disks, it prompted me for their locations, but I (along with
most customers don't have two CD's on the same system and the installation
died...
All in all, Dave isn't too impressed with a completely useless and downright
obtuse tool. After wasting two hours myself and eventually getting my only
CD permanently "mounted/dismounted" on a server I can't take down, I'd have to
agree. FWIW, just to top things off, the [SETUP]SETUP.COM indicates you should
have Netscape installed *but* it isn't included on the ODL and only customers
who got the base operating system distribution got the "Internet Product Suite"
CD where Netscape lives - nice packaging huh?
I've asked Dave to blast the CSC about this - the current ODL and BNU is not
useful to a lot of customers who don't have a lot of free time to sort out
things and the technical resources to do it IMNSHO.
FWIW, when I tried to invoke [SETUP]SETUP.COM, I too was warned about Netscape
not being on the system, but silly me figured I'd just proceed with the install-
ation anyway (per SETUP.COM itself and the ODL User's Guide) and I could always
re-run [SETUP]SETUP.COM later, so far so good...
From there, it asked about the whereabouts of the two ODL disks and upon
taking the default answers, it died with:
This library consists of 2 volumes. You will be prompted for the device
where each volume will be mounted. You may use logical device names.
Where will volume 1 [AXPDOCMAR971] be mounted? [DISK$AXPDOCMAR971] : <CR>
Where will volume 2 [AXPDOCMAR972] be mounted? [DISK$AXPDOCMAR972] : <CR>
%DCL-W-INSFPRM, missing command parameters - supply all required parameters
I'll play with this after I can bring down the server and see if I can get
BNU to at least follow the steps in the ODL User's Guide...
Tony Swierkowski
Digital Equipment Corporation
Software Partner Engineering
Palo Alto, California
(415) 617-3601
"[email protected]"
|
| Greetings!
After building an OpenVMS V7.1 "testbed" I did get BNU installed and setup
correctly. Books on disk1 open up just fine, (haven't tried to open books
on disk2 yet). Dave never did seem to get his setup working neatly. He gets
the shelves displayed correctly, but upon trying to actually open a book, BNU
errors out.
I found references to a saveset with old-style Bookreader shelves on it that
is supposed to tie the March '97 Alpha ODL books together so you can just con-
tinue using Bookreader outside of BNU (the VAX ODL included this). Unfortunate-
ly the filespec I tried accessing per a note in the CDROM conference no longer
exists so I asked Dave to chase this down via the CSC which in turn blew him
off (no service contract).
I managed to find the saveset as a "patch" kit on an internal patch server,
pulled it over, but Dave can't allow inbound ftp access and we don't have com-
patible media so I ended up creating a self-extracting image with FTSV, then
"UUENCODE'ing" it and mailing it to him this afternoon, awaiting feedback...
Tony Swierkowski
Digital Equipment Corporation
Software Partner Engineering
Palo Alto, California
(415) 617-3601
"[email protected]"
|
| Greetings!
Dave got the saveset I mailed him last week okay, but I don't think he
finished the "installation" per the release notes since Bookreader couldn't
find the top-level "LIBRARY.BKS" file that provides the links to the sub-set
category shelves which in turn provides the links to the individual product
shelves and finally to the books themselves for a given product. I sent him
more mail this morning and await feedback...
Tony Swierkowski
Digital Equipment Corporation
Software Partner Engineering
Palo Alto, California
(415) 617-3601
"[email protected]"
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