| >I am having a problem getting the following information from IBI.
IBI, business as usual...
>I want to know if I purchase Focus manuals (User's guide, HLI,
>Subroutine library etc.) how will these manuals be updated
>each time a new version of FOCUS is released.
I have heard a set of manuals and/or addenda are supplied by IBI
with new releases of the software. Since we have a corporate license
my guess is it won't happen for us.
>People in IBI have told me everything from "updates are free"
>to "you have to buy new manuals".
More business as usual, but in this case they were both right. The
user manual supplement for VAX/FOCUS V1.3 was free for a while,
then they started charging for it.
>Does anyone know how IBI plans to handle their user documentation
>updates from the FOCUS release 5.2 on.
Probably not !
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My comments on their documentation:
Way back before FOCUS V5.0 on IBM, IBI manuals were notoriously
hard to read and disorganized. They did a major rewrite for 5.0
which made the manual much more readable for beginners, but lost
a LOT of (necessary) technical detail.
The first VAX manual was essentialy the IBM 5.0 manual with all the
occurances of "TSO" and "VM" replaced with "VMS". They have cleaned it
up a bit since. It seems to me IBI only issues NEW documentation on NEW
or existing features and seldom revises what is already there. A good
example is the latest VAX manual. Skimming it, I found the 3 ring
edition is VERY similar to V1.0 and the supplement for V1.3
Another note, documentation used to be cheap. Big manuals were $15,
others were $10 and under. The 3-ring set they released in April(?)
is at least $40.
my $.02
-John
|
| HI,
Sue Crespan - IBI Professional Services - came out to see us and
then sent Skip Hancock out to spend a morning with us (Mid Range
Systems Engineering MIS in Boxboro). Both visits were free and
very helpful. We also got some free documentation out of it. I'd
give Sue a call at the IBI office and Burlington and see what she
can do for you.
signed,
a previously very dissatisfied FOCUS customer
Anne F.
|