MVSFORUMS.com

[Cogito-Ergo-Sum]

Kolusu/Dalaly,
As we all know that a large number of questions asked here or elsewhere would have been never been posted if the topic starter had gone through the manuals. I want to share my experience and would like to suggest a way to aid in RTFM.

For example, I ask, "How do I run a TSO command (say, the SE command) in batch"? Obviously, the commonest answer is RTFM. In case of magnanimous (there are many) responders, they paste the URL in their replies. It is easy to understand the mind of a person with decades of mainframe experience. They would be simply put off by such one-line questions and may not post the URL and simply ask me to RTFM.

In such a scenario, I goto IBM site. What do I see? Thousands of topics and each topic having hundreds of manuals for it. I will be despaired and wring my hands helplessly. Which book should I look into? Which topic in that book should I browse?

I might search for TSO commands. There will be lots of hits for it. Assuming I goto the right manual, I may still not have RTFM. Because, I do not know, I have to look for IKJEFT01.

To help in RTFM (but, not necessarily eliminate questions which evoke RTFM type of anwers), I suggest you start having a "Search Repository".

Any user who pastes a link must be immediately prompted to goto a page where s/he can enter information about the link. Information such as, URL itself, site name, what question did it answer, etc. Such a page would enable users to goto this page. They would look for already "searched topics" and reduce one-liner posts.

I hope I am clear about my idea. Of course, others may have different ideas. The final decision to fructify this idea is also yours. As a regular at this site, I thought I must share my idea with you all so as to benefit other users too.
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

[Venkata Ramana Reddy]

Cogito-Ergo-Sum,
I like your idea.
_________________
Venkataramana
-- Good judgement comes from experience, and often experience comes from bad judgement.

[Cogito-Ergo-Sum]

Venkata Ramana Reddy,
Thank you. Let us see, if it appeals to Kolusu and Dalaly. Maybe we should start lobbying?
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

[kolusu]

Cogito,

It is a good idea and it has been already a work in progress. I am editing the board's most commonly asked questions and am planning to create a downloadable file which can be used as a reference. It is a major work and I plan to roll out one with all the tips and tricks of mvs.If any one would like to contribute please send an email to kolusu@mvsforums.com with subject tips and tricks of mvs.

Thanks

Kolusu

[Cogito-Ergo-Sum]

Kolusu,
It is really nice to know that the idea is already implementation. But, I was just wondering that maybe it is better to have a link in this site that would enable users to add or use already searched links. This is unlike the downloadable file which is kind of 'static'. Nevertheless, that downloadable file too will be of immense help.
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

[stansaraczewski]

I'd like to submit my opinion regarding 'RTFM'.

Over the years, I have avoided using that response unless the person is trying to get me to do his work. Case in point once an applications programmer walked up to my desk and announced that he had gotten error "abc123I" (I've forgotten the exact number).

This is where the RTFM reply can be appropriate... I asked him what the message manual told him to do and he resonded that he hadn't looked it up. I told him to go do so, then return if he didn't understand the prescribed action.

On the other hand, if someone has made an effort and is still clueless I feel that is my duty to provide a high level direction. Usually a light illuminates above the persons' head as comprehension sets in... and he/she is on the way, down the road.

Like a person said earlier in this thread - there is so much information available it would take many hours to sift thru it... one dead end after another can get very discouraging.

We all started somewhere, and I certainly feel I owe the beginners the same courtesy that was given to me when I started in this field.

[Cogito-Ergo-Sum]

Wow ! Looking at this old post of mine, this idea has now become big time hit in Web2.0 these days. Maybe, we should leverage all this social software.

del.icio.us
Dogear IBM Research Center

hmm...should have filed a patent....
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.

[dbzTHEdinosauer]

Finding manuals on the web
_________________
Dick Brenholtz
American living in Varel, Germany

[semigeezer]

I have the following code on my home page. Adding it to the site might help. It is the search form for the IBM z/OS 1.9 pubs.

[kolusu]

semigeezer,

I already have something similar to that on the main page at the bottom.

www.mvsforums.com


It is searching in http://publibz.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr_OS390/FINDBOOK. I can change that to z/OS publications.

Kolusu

[Cogito-Ergo-Sum]

Nice !

But, they are so not Web2.0 !
_________________
ALL opinions are welcome.

Debugging tip:
When you have eliminated all which is impossible, then whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
-- Sherlock Holmes.