A good point. What I may really need is a parallel environment with automatic synchronization. I don't want it mainly or only on the z because: (1) what if the z is unavailable; (2) it costs real money, in terms of MSU usage for which we are billed. And, in a D.R. situation, do we want to be dependent on the z for doc? Or on Windows? Well, IMO - neither! So I need an "offline" version of the Wiki residing on a CD which can be burned and put into the D.R. buckets instead of paper. If it is all HTML (Wiki to Html "print" of the entire Wiki), then the CD could be inserted into a local PC running any browser (Windows, Mac, Linux) and read.
Thanks for some very good thoughts about usefulness in a D.R. situation. On Sat, 2010-12-04 at 09:55 -0600, Joel C. Ewing wrote: > I've always felt it was a bad idea to have installation mainframe > documentation too far separated from the mainframe platform itself or > dependent on any other server platforms, under the general premise that > in a DR situation if we have recovered the mainframe we want to be sure > we have access to all documentation needed to operate it. > > Some documentation was just kept as monocase or dualcase text files on > MVS, with links from ISPF screens. Before DCF/Script became too > expensive, some large documents were maintained as separate chapters in > DCF SGML using DCF to build text and pdf versions of the document. > Afterwards those SGML documents were converted to use docbook tools with > docbook document source on MVS, building multi-html, single-html, and > pdf version with free tools on a workstation and then porting various > forms either back to MVS or to media that went off site for DR. > > Because of the complexity of the docbook approach, there has been > pressure in recent years to go to a more update-friendly wysiwyg > solution, with a management preference for MS Word. My own preference > is OpenOffice. The OO price is right, enabling everyone to afford the > current version, while non-trivial licensing costs with MS Word > typically mean there are multiple, not-completely-compatible versions > floating around the corporation. My version of OpenOffice has much > better support than my version of MS Word for maintaining documents of > several hundred pages as a master document and separate chapters and > optionally generating both html and pdf document formats, which can be > saved on MVS and elsewhere. I also find a much lower level of > astonishment using OpenOffice - it seems like MS Word more often tries > to do too much and makes erroneous assumptions about my formatting > intentions. And then of course there is the philosophical issue of > having MVS documentation dependent on MicroSoft! > > I am not averse to the concept of a wiki and I believe we actually have > one that is available to Technical Services and used by PC Technical > Support, but to not violate my requirement for availability of MVS > documentation, some form of the information would have to be portable > both to MVS and in some other form (html, pdf) that would be accessible > without any functioning server in a DR scenario. There would also have > to be some support to take a collection of separate related articles and > assemble them into a hard copy manual, such as might be required by > Operations to restart the computer center after a complete power down > when no servers are available. > Joel C Ewing > > On 12/04/2010 07:30 AM, John McKown wrote: > > I am curious about something. It is not directly about IBM z series, but > > about those of us, older, people who support them. It is more a > > philosophy question than technical. > > > > I want to document our system. We do have some documentation. At > > present, it is all is a mish-mash of various MS Word documents. I really > > don't care much for it. And I'll admit one reason is that I dislike Word > > Processors in general and MS Word in particular. Anyway, I have access > > to a Windows server system. On it, I installed a nice little package > > called UniServer. > > > > http://www.uniformserver.com/ > > <quote> > > The Uniform Server is a WAMP package that allows you to run a server on > > any MS Windows OS based computer. It is small and mobile to download or > > move around and can also be used or setup as a production/live server. > > Developers also use The Uniform Server to test their applications made > > with either PHP, MySQL, Perl, or the Apache HTTPd Server. > > </quote> > > > > On top of this I installed a very simple Wiki: http://www.pmwiki.org/ > > > > I have written a fair number of hyperlinked "articles" about our system > > using this. Granted, it is a bit of a bother to have to type stuff in. > > But no worse than typing in any other system. I've tried to include > > links to vendor support sites and how we use the product. For products > > which I've installed, I've included installation and customization > > information. > > > > Now the "problem". Nobody else will even consider using this for their > > documentation. They have said that it is just too different from MS Word > > and even though they like what __I've__ done with the links, it is "just > > too much trouble" to learn to do documentation in a different way. And, > > anyway, MS Word is universal whereas Wikis are not. So learning to > > maintain a Wiki article is not marketable. > > > > Am I insane to want to use a Wiki for this sort of thing __instead__ of > > a Word processor? > > > > I'm not even going into other software I use. Such as vym (View Your > > Mind) which I used to document the IPL and which made a very nice > > graphic image for the Wiki. This image shows the IPL sequence and > > CA-OPS/MVS processing which results in everything coming up without the > > need to enter a lot of z/OS console commands. Again, others think the > > graph is nice and very useful. But don't want to learn how to make one > > themselves. OK, I can understand this latter because vym is a Linux > > application. And nobody else likes or uses a Linux desktop.<sigh> > > > > Yes, I will have some cheese with that whine. > > > > -- John McKown Maranatha! <>< ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
