Newsgroups: bit.listserv.sas-l
Date:         Fri, 4 Sep 1992 09:43:14 EDT
Reply-To:     Howard Schreier <HIS@NIHCU.BITNET>
From:         Howard Schreier <HIS@NIHCU.BITNET>
Subject:      Online Documentation

CONTENT:  Comment
SUMMARY:  My speculations and opinions

> Online manual access is CLEARLY the progressive thing to do,
> however I suspect it may cut into a company's manual-sales
> revenues. Remember the perhaps apocryphal Kodak annecdote:
> "Give the cameras away; we'll make our money on the film."
> Selling documentation is, I suspect, a major source of
> revenue for SAS Institute, like many other companies.

I imagine that Publications is treated as a profit center at
the  Institute.  I'm not sure that it is all that lucrative;
the expenses must  be  pretty  large.   But  the  launch  of
"Observations",  and especially its pricing, reveals a clear
entrepreneurial orientation.

> On the other hand, online manual access may reduce
> corportate and vendor support costs by actually encouraging
> people to RTFM before calling tech support-type numbers.

I think it's more  than  that.   The  present  documentation
situation  is  just plain unsatisfactory.  The proliferation
of titles and editions confronts people with an overwhelming
maze.   Moreover, there is the chronic problem of keeping up
to  date.   The   Institute   itself   (in   the   new   SAS
Communications)  is  publicizing  the  fact  that  6.06  was
deficient and that many sites are moving directly from  5.18
to  6.07  as the production release of the software.  So, at
the point where many people are just making  the  transition
to  V.  6,  the  whole set of glossy-covered V. 6 manuals no
longer completely documents the  software,  since  there  is
already  a  bunch  of  6.07 "Changes and Enhancements" Tech.
Reports.

So, there are real problems and some things need to  change.
Fortunately,  the  Institute usually recognizes problems and
addresses them.  Sometimes it takes a while, and  they  like
to  keep  things  under wraps until they are close to having
something deliverable.   I'm  pretty  sure  that  there  are
people  busy  at  the  Institute  right  now  testing and/or
developing online documentation techniques.

> One final thought: remember that online manual access isn't
> wholly practical unless you have a high resolution
> workstation-quality interface ... or you're willing to
> sacrafice all illustrations and most page formatting.

It  seems  that  we  have  implicitly  been  talking   about
information  that  is  organized  and  developed  for  print
delivery, then made available online in  the  form  of  page
images.   If  online  delivery  is  intended from the start,
there are other options (hypertext, etc.), since authors and
designers  are  freed from the hierarchical organization and
linear  structure  of  print  media.   Of  course,  for  the
forseeable  future,  some (but, IMHO, not all) documentation
will also have to be offered in print form.

> Joe St Sauver (joe@oregon.uoregon.edu)

Finally, I hope that any online documentation system offered
by the Institute will be implemented and marketed separately
from the software.  I am presently a MVS-only  SAS  user;  I
would  not  want to have to access the mainframe in order to
look through my "manuals".  What I would like to  see  is  a
CD-ROM based system, with versions for a variety of machines
(including Macs and perhaps others which are not  themselves
SAS platforms -- why not?).

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