Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!hp4nl!esatst!yc.estec.nl!neil From: neil@yc.estec.nl (Neil Dixon) Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp Subject: Re: cdrom questions Message-ID: <1991Jan24.082918.5173@yc.estec.nl> Date: 24 Jan 91 08:29:18 GMT References: <1991Jan23.192953.28335@eye.com> Sender: @yc.estec.nl Reply-To: neil@yc.estec.nl (Neil Dixon) Organization: ESTEC/YC Lines: 38 In article <1991Jan23.192953.28335@eye.com>, paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth) writes: |>2. On a more serious note, has anyone out there used the HP-LASERROM |> documentation product? What are your impressions of the X-interface |> of this guy, and do you consider the whole concept useful? Would you |> say that laserrom is a viable alternative to paper manuals? My current |> support contracts give me 3 sets of paper manuals which are shared among |> some 20 workstations. I'd like to replace all this paper with laserrom |> docs on all workstations and maybe 1 set of paper manuals. Reasonable? |> This get a big recommendation from me, despite my other comments below. Not only do I now have an extra 3m of shelf space, but also I can find information much more quickly, due to the keyword searching features. You also get access to docs for products you may not yet have, which can be very useful in deciding whether you want them (but no docs for the 400 series yet?). The down-side for me is the X interface itself. Primarily it tends to be a bit of a fascist, in dictating where windows are placed, how they're stacked, etc. All things that I would like to control. Also the bloody thing will crash with an X protocol error if you try to run it on a Turbo SRX, with the server in OVERLAY or COMBINED mode. Run it on a monochrome HP machine, and perform some keyword search, and you can see where the keywords appear in the document, by the subtle use of white text on a white background :-). I can't find any resource which controls how keywords are displayed. (Yes I have reported these two bugs to HP!) Another minor grumble. It's claimed to be a OSF/MOTIF interface, but the widgets used look strangely like the old HP widget set. Neil Dixon UUCP:...!mcvax!esatst!neil, BITNET: NDIXON@ESTEC Thermal Control & Life Support Division (YC) European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC), Noordwijk, The Netherlands.