BookManager Alternatives?

From: Mark Hunter

To: All

I'm probably going to buy a CD-ROM drive soon. I'd like to use it with the AS/400 SoftCopy CD that is shipped with the AS/400 documentation. However, I'm not too crazy about buying IBM's BookManager software. Does anyone know of alternative software that will read this disk? If not, would you please offer your opinions of DOS-based BookManager? I prefer Windows myself, and do not want to upgrade to OS/2 just to take advantage of the Presentation Manager version. Thanks.

From: Mickey Mathieson

To: Mark Hunter

I use the BookManager software (of course, I would rather have manuals in hard copy). The BookManager seems to work fine as a Windows DOS task and over a network with all programmers sharing the device. So far we have had no lockups and everyone gets info very quickly.

From: Douglas Handy

To: Mark Hunter

If there was any competition, IBM would never sell a copy. Book-Manager doesn't have mouse support, it has only simple searches (no Boolean expressions or even UNIX-style regular expressions), doesn't directly support printing of graphic-based images, doesn't support 132 columns even if your monitor does, and is otherwise, in my opinion, well below the standards I'd expect.

But it does have one redeeming quality: it lets you read the CD. The search it does have, while rudimentary, is certainly better than looking in a table of contents or index-especially when you don't know for sure in which book(s) IBM scattered the relevant information.

When I'm looking for reference information (the majority of the time), I'd much rather use the CD than the hard copy. If I am reading something like Work Management for the first time, I'd much rather use a hard copy.

When Windows can run PM programs, I plan on using the OS/2 ver sion. In the meantime, I just run it in a DOS window.

From: Lance Gillespie

To: Mickey Mathieson

The reader program (now called IBMREAD) is included on the V2R2M0 CD.

From: Mickey Mathieson

To: Lance Gillespie

If so, I have a CD disk two weeks old that is already outdated. Also, it would be like IBM to send me old stuff. The application software is only one week old!

From: Lance Gillespie

To: Mickey Mathieson

I have the August 1992 CD (SK2T-8250-02). On it is a subdirectory called EZ2INST. In that subdirectory is a .BAT file called INSTALL.BAT. I just ran that and it set everything up. If your CD is not that date or release number, IBM sent you the wrong one for V2R2M0.