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From: freak@cbnewsc.ATT.COM (c.e.malloy..iii)
Newsgroups: comp.os.os2,comp.windows.ms
Subject: What manuals?
Message-ID: <14999@cbnewsc.ATT.COM>
Date: 10 Apr 90 18:48:43 GMT
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 73


What follows is a reprint (without permission) of a letter that
was printed in the April 1990 issue of "SOFTWARE magazine.  Any
comments?

Clancy Malloy
att!ihlpf!cem


    Open Letter to Microsoft:
    
    This letter is to inform you  of  my  experience  with  obtaining
    Microsoft's Operating System Software Development Kit 2.O.
    
    Immediately upon receiving the kit, I called  Microsoft  to  find
    out   where  the  manuals  were.   Microsoft's  customer  support
    informed me that there were no printed manuals -  they  were  all
    "online."
    
    Well, that's not entirely  true  -  I  did  receive  three  small
    manuals.   One  was  for  the online services.  All the operating
    system and program development  support  appeared  to  be  via  a
    bulletin board.  That was a good idea.  Apparently Microsoft knew
    that without a printed manual, it would  be  flooded  with  phone
    calls.
    
    Then there was the Editor Users Guide.  Nice, but  if  I  had  my
    choice  of  any  manual, that would be dead last on my list.  The
    third manual was IBM's SAA Common User Access Advanced  Interface
    Design  Guide.  Apparently IBM thought it was important enough to
    send a printed manual.  It will be the first thing I study.
    
    The support person pointed out that we could print the manuals on
    our  printer.   Good  idea.   I'll  send  someone out to buy some
    printer ribbons, another box of  paper,  hole  puncher  and  some
    binders.  Then after we listen to hours of racket, we draw straws
    on who gets to burst the pages and punch  the  holes.   This  all
    assumes  that everything goes well and the printer doesn't jam or
    melt down on page 310.  Of course, what  we  end  up  with  is  a
    manual twice as big as it needs to be.
    
    The  person  who  made  the  decision  not  to  include   printed
    documentation   with  a  new  and  complex  operating  system,  C
    compiler, linker and software development toolkit  was  obviously
    not  someone  who  has  to use it.  For $39, one expects diskette
    with readme file, a .doc  file  and  program.   For  $2,600,  one
    expects  and  insists  on a printed manual.  The highly technical
    nature of this work demands not only frequent references  to  the
    documentation  but  that the material be studied in its entirety.
    So how do I take an online manual home at  night?   Pack  up  the
    model  80  and monitor in the back seat?  Copy it to my portable,
    on which it probably won't run?  That's illegal.  So I would need
    to  spend  another $2,600.  It could be that the integrity of the
    OS/2 online information is so poor that Microsoft does  not  feel
    confident in printing a developer's manual.
    
    I  have  read  Ed  Iacobucci's  OS/2  Programmers  Guide  and  am
    currently   reading   Alan   Southerton's  Programmers  Guide  to
    Presentation Manager.  OS/2 is so complex  as  a  "PC"  operating
    system  that it may fall under its own weight.  The policy of not
    sending manuals with the operating system and developer's toolkit
    would  seem  to  guarantees  its  collapse.  Two years ago, after
    learning about the type of commitment OS/2  would  require,  I  -
    like  thousands  of others - waited to see how OS/2 would fare in
    the market.  It is obvious why OS/2 is moving painfully slow.
    
    Online manuals are a fantastic addition to  OS/2,  but  they  can
    never replace the need for printed manuals.
    
                                         Gary Hoff, VP of Engineering
                                        ABC Development Systems, Inc.
                                                   Minneapolis, Minn.