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| HP Instant Information – an instant
success?
For many years the best that could be said of LaserROM, HP’s method over the last decade for delivering documentation on CD-ROM, was that it was better than nothing. HP listened, and one of its promises for MPE/iX 6.0 was an improved system for documentation on CD-ROM called HP Instant Information (HPII). HPII would employ a third-party browser product called DynaText and would greatly improve the quality of text and graphics as well as provide improved searching. The promise has taken a long time to fulfill. The last LaserROM produced carries a date of 11/97, so naturally I was excited when I opened my MPE/iX 6.0 release materials to discover the first HP Instant Information CD-ROM.
Perhaps the biggest and most pleasant surprise was printing. Many of us were under the impression that we could only print to Postscript printers. In fact, the FAQ on the HP Instant Information CD-ROM says “The following LaserROM features will not be available: support for other non-Postscript printers previously supported by LaserROM (e.g. PCL).” (Of course this same FAQ never mentions MPE/iX, but mentions HP-UX several times.) After a few hours of use, it appears this statement refers only to figures, and then only to lower rung printers. So far I have been able to print any text, table or figure I tried to a non-Postscript equipped LaserJet 4Plus printer. I have been able to print text and tables, but not figures, to a Deskjet 520! Another pleasant surprise was the inclusion of the HP 3000 MPE/iX Release 6.0 System Software Maintenance Manual in the MPE/iX 6.0 Operating System collection. Who cares? Well, this means you can easily create a custom manual for any OS maintenance task by printing the appropriate checklist and each section comprising the checklist. I love it. No more fumbling through a bulky manual sitting in front of the console looking for section 4-6. Was HPII an instant success with me? Absolutely. Is it everything I hoped for? No. The look and feel is somewhat dated, and it would really benefit from fly-by help for the tool bar buttons. (Note: you can configure it to include text as well as icons on the buttons.) Hopefully, since this is just the first release, we will see continued improvement and increased content in future releases of HPII. And after all, even MPE/iX 6.0 isn’t everything I hoped for. — John Burke
Copyright 1998 The 3000 NewsWire. All rights reserved |
Documents are organized into seven different
collections. The scope of a search can range from everything to a single
document. In addition to standard single level word, phrase and Boolean
searches, HPII supports multi-level (refinement) wildcard, proximity and
context searches. Not all MPE documentation is included in HPII,
particularly for older, stable products. However, we were warned about
this, and HP has included a copy of the last LaserROM CD-ROM with each HPII
package to cover documentation not on HPII.