SCOUG-Programming Mailing List Archives

<< Previous Message << >> Next Message >>

Date:	Sun, 15 Feb 2004 15:44:18 PST8
From:	Peter Skye <pskye@peterskye.com >
Reply-To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
To:	scoug-programming@scoug.com
Subject:	SCOUG-Programming: PL/I most important statement (was: call(TZ) ? - PL/I)

Content Type: text/plain

Lynn H. Maxson wrote:
>
> Apparently you are absolutely unaware of how IBM picks
> writers for their manuals, especially their red books.

All publishers have both "good" and "bad" staff writers.

> Having been selected at one time to write a general
> information manual on an about-to-be-announced version
> of UNIX on an IBM mainframe and working intensely with
> others who only function was manual writing for IBM I
> can speak to this with some authority.

Tell me this: Which product did IBM feel was strategically more
important, the UNIX version above or PL/I?

> others knowing my distaste for all things UNIX
> complimented me by saying that from my writing
> they would never have guessed my true feelings.

Distaste doesn't mean incompetent. I'm sure your book was excellent.

> I once came close to another opportunity based on my having
> successfully sold and installed the entire Western Region's
> quota of the IBM Data Dictionary. It was a $50,000 toss up
> between essentially writing about how I used its features to
> successfully produce its value to the clients and producing
> a manual on naming conventions. The naming conventions won.

You mean the PL/I book budget was only $50,000 also? For $50G in the
'60s you could have gotten some _great_ technical writing.

> . . . That sits right up there with the folks in
> IBM Research Center in Yorktown who wanted
> to write an APL compiler using Fortran.

I was at Yorktown for a short while. Nice place. And I'm sure that
Fortran would have been a good language for their APL compiler, since
both Fortran and APL have appeal to the researchers who were there --
there would have been good team involvement in the project.

> You got me started unfortunately, Peter, with this
> begin-end thing. Don't get me started on IBM manuals.

I still have a couple hundred IBM manuals (SRLs) although I'm not sure
what condition they are in after last fall's flood. I like SRLs --
they're easy to read, well organized and have plenty of depth.

- Peter

=====================================================

To unsubscribe from this list, send an email message
to "steward@scoug.com". In the body of the message,
put the command "unsubscribe scoug-programming".

For problems, contact the list owner at
"rollin@scoug.com".

=====================================================

Return to [ 15 | February | 2004 ]

SCOUG, Warp Expo West, and Warpfest are trademarks of the Southern California OS/2 User Group. OS/2, Workplace Shell, and IBM are registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corporation. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners.