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Re: Manuals: seconded again..

    Date: Tue, 6 Mar 90 14:48 EST
    From: miller@CS.ROCHESTER.EDU (Brad Miller)

	Date: Tue, 6 Mar 90 09:44 EST
	From: pan@Athena.Pangaro.Dialnet.Symbolics.Com (Paul Pangaro)

	    Date: Tue, 6 Mar 90 10:46:06+0900
	    From: kddlab!atr-la.atr.co.jp!myers@uunet.UU.NET (John K. Myers)

	    The idea of having each customer site fill out a form to request the
	    number of desired manuals is a good one.  Please do this.

	Absolutely concur with policy to 1lower 0the number, rather than
	default to 1 for 5. I have 2 machines under software maintenance
	in two different places; I don't know, how many do I get? I
	certainly need 2, since (as others have said similarly) (1) printing from
	the doc examiner is 2post hoc0 from my needs; (2) scanning paper is
	far more pleasant for many things; etc.

	Other opinions from users?

    I agree that one/machine is more than we (an academic institution!) really
    need. Mainly because many of the machines are in a common area. But I think
    the 1 + 1/5 is too little too. I suspect the algorithm is ad hoc, so perhaps
    some tuning? e.g. generalize to 1/machine for machines upto n, 1/m machines
    thereafter (rounded down). Setting n and m can be done in consultation with
    the users.  For *us*, n=3 m=4 would be optimal.

I also agree  with brad's  suggestion.  In  our case  n=3 and  m=4or5 is
ideal.  I suspect that at most sites the machines tend to be located  in
clusters rather than all at one  place, having a threshold on  the point
where fewer manuals are distributed is  a great idea.  I'd also  like to
second something from  a earlier  message.  In  our case  ordering extra
copies of manuals won't even be an option until next fiscal year (starts
April, 1991)  since  the  O&M  budget  for  our  hardware  and  software
maintenance for the year beginning april 1, 1990 has already been fixed.
I'll tell you  one thing,  since Symbolics  is going  to change  the way
things work at  such short  notice, I'm  going to  make damn sure things
(such as #  of doc  copies) get  written into  the software  maintenance
contract I'm negotiating for next year.
	The sad part about  all this, is  that this sort  of hassle just
makes it harder for me to keep justifying the steady stream of  machines
we have been buying (the goal was to put at least a MacIvory on
everyones desk).
	G++
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