Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!think.com!mintaka!spdcc!rbraun
From: rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.aix
Subject: IBM's documentation policy?
Message-ID: <8146@spdcc.SPDCC.COM>
Date: 30 Jun 91 18:15:42 GMT
Organization: Kronos Inc., Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 23

When I buy SCO Unix, DEC VMS, or any of a number of other vendors'
operating systems, included in the price of the software is a complete
set of documentation on both the system commands and the library calls
available to application developers.

The library-calls doc from SCO comes in a compressed form and takes
up no more than a couple of megabytes of storage.

IBM's AIX policy is to make a CD-ROM of all this doc available free of
charge, but I'm not aware of any way to get a copy of it on tape (without
an extra cost).  My pre-loaded Model 520 came with 'info' on shell
commands only, and no printed manuals whatsoever.

It is my belief that, if this is true, IBM will have a harder time getting
developers to write AIX applications than SCO (for example) might have.

So my question is this:  can I indeed get hold of the library-calls
doc free of charge on tape or diskette?  If not, how might one go about
trying to persuade IBM this isn't an especially wise policy?  If yes,
how might one convince IBM to automatically ship it with the AIX
system?

-rich