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Subject:Re: {Manuals on CD-ROM From:Dave Walker <walker -at- ASPENTEC -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 7 Dec 1993 12:46:18 EST
On Mon, 6 Dec 1993 22:45:52 GMT, Fred M Jacobson <fred -at- boole -dot- com> wrote:
>Last week, Sharon wrote:
>>
>> The latest brilliant idea from marketing is to put all our manuals on CD-ROM.
>> However, what they want to do is to merely PUT them on CD-ROM;
> with
>> no navigation tools or special formatting. Kind of like microfiche.
>> ...
>There have already been a number of good replies, including "horror
>stories" about "no navigation tools." What I just noticed was that
>doc dumped onto CD-ROM is not "like microfiche," but like microfilm.
> ^^^^
>That is, CD-ROM with no navigation is completely sequential, and
>probably considerably slower than zipping through the reel of microfilm
>searching for a page number. Paper documentation, of course, is not
>limited to sequential access.
I think the analogy depends on what you're viewing the docs with.
If it's ASCII and you're using Edit (DOS) or vi, you can search for
text. While not a sophisicated one, this is a navigation tool.
For a custom viewer with no navigation tools (not even your basic text
searching), I think the microfilm analogy applies well.
So much technology, so little time ...
regards,
dave walker | |
<Position> | |
<Company> | space for rent |
<Address> | |
walker -at- aspentec -dot- com | |