Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!usc!orion.oac.uci.edu!ucivax!gateway From: enag@ifi.uio.no Newsgroups: comp.protocols.iso.x400 Subject: Re: MHS documentation on-line ?? Message-ID: Date: 22 Sep 90 01:08:54 GMT References: <9009200545.aa20609@ICS.UCI.EDU> <26f93522.5fa1@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> Organization: Naggum Software, Oslo, Norway Lines: 36 Approved: usenet@ICS.UCI.EDU In-Reply-To: jdudeck@polyslo.calpoly.edu's message of 21 Sep 90 00:00:48 GMT x-attn: jns ReSent-To: mhsnews@ICS.UCI.EDU In article <26f93522.5fa1@petunia.CalPoly.EDU> jdudeck@polyslo.calpoly.edu ("John R. Dudeck") writes: In an article ALGOLD%LNCC2@cunyvm.cuny.edu (Alexandre Leib Grojsgold) wrote: >"I've got some advice for anyone interested in obtaining documentations >for the Open System Interconnections: Bring your checkbook, it's not >cheap!. Be prepared to pay $1 or more a page, wich adds up to several thousand ^^^^^^^ >dollars for a reasonably complete documentation for these critical standards" Shouldn't that be like $100/inch? We just bought the X.400 Blue book, which is about 1" thick, and cost almost $100. It has 628 pages. That comes to more like $.15 a page. Congratulations, you have just discovered the major difference between ISO and CCITT versions of the same standard! Now try to order ISO 10021, and see how much _that_ costs... I have recommended that people buy the CCITT recommendations rather than the ISO standards several times. Some have pointed out that ISO standards are wider in scope than CCITT recommendations, and that some CCITT recommendations contains errors. Both are true. I did, however, also order ODA, SGML, and numerous other standards from ISO, and I have gotten Addenda to some of them, and by God, that's totally horrible. CCITT at least send you change pages, not a bloody diff between what they botched up and what is true. ISO 8824 (ASN.1) comes with an addendum, while X.208 is a complete copy of both ISO 8824 and ISO 8824A1. This is enough to want the CCITT version, and that the entire X.200 series cost 1/8th of the ISO 8824/5 standards with addenda is just very nice. :-) And, to answer the original question, no, you won't find ISO docs on-line. Unless you type it in and look at it afterwards, that is. -- [Erik Naggum] Naggum Software; Gaustadalleen 21; 0371 OSLO; NORWAY I disclaim, , therefore I post. +47-295-8622, +47-256-7822, (fax) +47-260-4427