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- Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU
- Path: sparky!uunet!paladin.american.edu!auvm!UNC.BITNET!UNCSM1
- Message-ID: <SAS-L%92091408251741@VTVM2.CC.VT.EDU>
- Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
- Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 08:25:00 EDT
- Reply-To: Sally Muller <UNCSM1@UNC.BITNET>
- Sender: "SAS(r) Discussion" <SAS-L@UGA.BITNET>
- From: Sally Muller <UNCSM1@UNC.BITNET>
- Subject: SAS Online Documentation
- Lines: 175
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- SUMMARY: Mimi Saffer and online "information" from SI. Summary of
- procs and cons.
- E-ADDR: uncsm1@unc.bitnet
- NAME: Sally Muller
- PH/ADDR: 919-962-6501 OIT CB#3455, UNC, Chapel Hill NC 27514
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
- Hi SAS'Lers!
- Last week or so, Deb Cannon started it all off (she keeps doing
- that) with posting about IBM's Book Manager and online SAS
- documentation. Great discussion followed about pros and cons of
- online documentation -- in particular SAS manuals. I'd like to
- briefly :-) summarize these and tell you what we heard from Mimi
- Saffer, SI Manager of Documentation Development, at our August
- SAS users group meeting.
-
- First Mimi. At UNC we have (like Anup K. Roy) the MVS
- experimental version of SAS/LOOKUP (online SAS Master Index).
- Our users group meeting was a demo of LOOKUP at SAS Institute.
- Maybe a future note about that. At any rate, Mimi Saffer spoke
- and eventually got around to talking about SAS and online
- "information." Mimi said that SAS is actively "pursuing R&D in
- the area of online information" (does Howard Schreier have ESP or
- what?). She said that SAS/LOOKUP "a hypertext interface for the
- master index to SAS documentation" is their first step in that
- direction. Then she said that "in the future, SI plans to make
- MORE online information available to SAS users." Since the
- meeting I again talked to Mimi and asked if OK to post something
- on SAS-L. She encouraged me and said to add "We are very eager
- to hear from users about their concerns, requirements, and wishes
- for online information and documentation. I invite all of you to
- contact me with your ideas on online documentation."
- ========================================================================
- Here are all the people (and "Poops") paraphrased (drastically):
- Deb Cannon, Phil Gallagher (COP), Joe St Sauver, Paul Oldenkamp,
- Howard Schreier, Margie Gurwit, Anup K Roy, Walter Davis, Dan
- Flaser, J. Phillip Miller, David K. Wall, Marsha Sheperd, Jim
- Agnew and Don MacQueen. Thanks to all....
-
- PROS:
- 1. Environmentally superior -- savings on earth resources (DC)
- Savings of up to 6 feet of bookshelf space :-) (PR).
-
- 2. Timeliness -- online continuously updated manuals (PG). Also
- stated as the solution to the chronic problem of the
- proliferation of titles and editions that overwhelms people
- now (HS). The example was given that the "whole set of
- glossy-covered V.6 manuals no longer completely documents the
- software, and there are a bunch of 6.07 "Changes and
- Enhancements" Tech Reports" (HS).
-
- 3. Profitable for vendor (SI) -- "online manual access may reduce
- corporate and vendor support costs by actually encouraging
- people to RFTM before calling tech support" (JSS). Because
- online documentation is easier to use people would actually be
- willing to pay more for it than paper manuals (PO). Color is
- expensive to print, just think of what could be added to
- documentation if reporduction was cheap (CD-ROM) (PR).
-
- 4. Less expensive for user -- paper manuals can be stolen or
- destroyed. Example given involved a lab with paper
- manuals -- the whole lot $1,000 versus the lab networked with
- a CD-ROM on the network machine ($400-500 for good with
- controller, $700-800 better) and if need extra disk space
- (typically one IBM manual 1 meg) A 200 meg drive costs about
- $550 and should last for 3-5 years (mean time to failure is
- over 8 years constant use). Potentially a saving depending on
- the cost of SI online documentation. " The implications of
- this view is that machine readable documentation is extremely
- cheap to the end user and paper manuals will get more and more
- expensive (a book produced in 20,000 copies may cost $10 a
- volume, same book produced in 2,000 copies may cost $30 a
- volume, setup in printing is a big cost). A CD-ROM now is
- cheap to master and produce in 1,000+ volume (costs may be
- less than $3 per copy). A cheap CD-ROM drive for $167 (new)
- with a SCSI interface is slow 600ms access but a demonstration
- of the decreasing cost of the hardware (PR).
-
- 5. Superior delivery -- if online documentation is intended from
- the start, it need not be restricted to hierarchical
- organization and linear structure but rather authors and
- designers have other options (hpertext, etc.) (HS). Can
- create a "bookshelf" of manuals. Then a search uses the books
- in your bookshelf as source. This means if you have 6 of the
- 12 products available and look for "hits" on a subject, you
- don't get references to products that you don't have.
- Conversely, searching the complete set of manuals points out
- the solution to problems that can be had by acquiring some new
- product. "Linking" means you can follow your own path through
- a document. You can place bookmarks in a document to return
- to later. This is the closest equivalent to having 5 manuals
- open on your desk at one time. I would expect the future
- directions will put each book in a separate window (PR).
-
- 6. More on superior delivery -- Accesible by the handicapped --
- software can read documents aloud for the blind or blow them
- up to large size for the visually impaired (and do both over a
- distance too). Accesible over distance -- dial in from home
- and read the manual on the hard disk of network server, can't
- read a single book at a distance of more than 3 feet. Can
- make margin notes, personal, workgroup, or completely public
- notes on (PR).
-
- 7. Platform independent -- online documentation could be available
- on platforms which are not themselves SAS platforms (eg Macs)
- (HS). Bookmanager already in binary, all-platform format (PR).
-
- 8. Models already exist -- Sun has already shown it can be done
- with Answerbook and SunSolve products (PO). Other examples:
- IBM's Book Manager, Dec's Bookreader, SAS/LOOKUP, interactive
- help under VM/CMS v 6.07.
-
- CONS:
-
- 1. Environmentally wasteful -- online documentation will be
- printed off by users repeatedly each time they need a copy.
- The psychology of the user is that this is "just" a computer
- printout. In contrast, user would not consider throwing out a
- book and/or buying a new one each time s/he needs one. (MG)
-
- 2. Financial losses for vendor -- a major portion of SI revenue
- must come from manual sales. Decline in manual sales would be
- likely to result in further software price increase. (PG)
- Selling documentation is a major source of revenue for SI
- (JSS).
-
- 3. Relative high cost to users -- experience has shown that
- online documentation tends to get printed off. (PG MG MS) This
- would have the effect of transferring the cost of the manuals
- from the users to whomever (eg computer centers) pays for the
- printer paper, and other resources. Charge back systems are
- expensive to maintain. Besides online documentation the paper
- documentation will also need to exist for many manuals (eg.
- systems manuals) for when the system is down. In order to
- have documents as close to users as possible, may mean the
- same documents on multiple platforms. (PR) Other costs, not
- always obvious, include the hardware and software appropriate
- for online documentation, eg.: CD drives, lots of additional
- disk space, high resolution workstation-quality interface,
- etc. Also to make online documentation accesible will need a
- great number of machines with necessary hardware/software.
- Facilities for these machines must be provided. "We only have
- one drive in each (but not every) computer lab. The manuals
- are cheaper than CD drives." "If the files were made more
- detailed, they would take up more disk space." (MS)
-
- 4. Poor delivery -- accessing online documentation inconvenient
- compared to paper. Former requires machine and going to
- location of machine and possibly even waiting in line. In
- contrast, can reach 2 feet behind you to grab a manual off the
- shelf. "And face it, some of us can't give up the need to read
- books wherever we are." (PR) Past performance of online
- documentation (SAS) indicates inferior presentation of
- material (eg sited 6.07 help files -- "do not contain
- examples, formulas, etc.") General/casual SAS user currently
- does not use online SAS documentation available and avoids
- reading all documentation when possible, most probable
- expectation is this user will not use new online documents (MG).
-
- 5. More on delivery -- paper manuals make a better monitor stand (PO)
- :-)
-
- 6. Existing models indicate future performance shakey -- SAS 6.07
- online documentation lacking (MS) and IBM's Bookmanager very
- slow under VM/ESA (MG) "I don't know if it is just our
- isntallation of it and our machine usage is quite high...but
- it is terrible, I couldn't with a good consience recommend it
- to anyone."
-
- --Sally
- PS - In writing this I logged all your message in a e-mail
- notebook and then PRINTED OFF. I read the printoff in the bus,
- waiting in line at store, eating, soaking in tub....I highlighted
- it in two colors and there are water and food spots all over it.
- Theres something to be said for paper documentation......
-