Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!dsuvax!ledgepc!wayne
From: wayne@ledgepc.uucp (Wayne Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Subject: Re: cdrom questions
Message-ID: <105@ledgepc.uucp>
Date: 24 Jan 91 08:03:07 GMT
References: <1991Jan23.192953.28335@eye.com>
Organization: Weyerhaeuser Paper Co., Columbus, MS USA
Lines: 31

From article <1991Jan23.192953.28335@eye.com>, by paul@eye.com (Paul B. Booth):
> 
> 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?
> 
I've only used the MPE V version of LaserROM runnning under Windows/286
under MS-DOS (shudder!), so I can't tell you anything about the X-interface.
As far as usefulness goes, it makes a great _addition_ to paper manuals, but
not, IMHO, a replacement.  LaserROM is great when you need to find references
to a specific topic but don't know what manual to use, or if the info is
scattered through several different manuals.  (I convinced our management
to renew our subscription by showing them how quickly it could come up with
complete instructions for dealing with system failures.)  But for browsing
through lengthy passages, I prefer hardcopy.  In fact, for longer passages,
I often use LaserROM to identify the correct manual & page, verify that it's
what I want, and then look it up in the hardcopy edition.  This allows us
to keep one copy of each of the paper manuals in a central location, with
LaserROM making it necessary to consult them only occasionally.

My suggestion is to purchase one set of LaserROM docs and try it out for a
couple of weeks.  If you (and your users) like it, you can buy copies for
the other workstations later.
-- 
Wayne Brown	wayne@ledgepc.uucp
		uunet!{loft386,dsuvax}!ledgepc!wayne
		72447.2645@compuserve.com
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