[Info-vax] HP TCPIP Service SMTP question...

[Simon Clubley]

On 2013-10-25, Rich Jordan <jordan at ccs4vms.com> wrote:
> On Thursday, October 24, 2013 6:18:59 PM UTC-5, Stephen Hoffman wrote:
>> re: is the SMTP configuration change documented?
>> 
>> First person that finds their way to page 1-13 in 
>> 
>> <http://h71000.www7.hp.com/doc/84final/tcprn/tcpip_v57_rel_notes.pdf> 
>> 
>> wins the kewpie.
>> 
>
> Correct, there is available documentation.  However the actual product
> documentation has not.  If you go to the HP official documentation site, select
> TCPIP Services, and then the V5.7 tab, and the management guide and command
> references contain invalid information; I know they say they are V5.6 on the
> cover page, but they are listed for and accessible via V5.7... they should have
> been updated.

I strongly agree.

Who was responsible for releasing this functionality change in V5.7 ?

Was it still Nashua or was this work done in India ?

In either case, whoever didn't update the documentation to reflect the
change in functionality made a big mistake; it's the kind of thing which
simply would have been unheard of a few years ago and would have been
regarded as a release blocker.

BTW, documentation doesn't seem to be all that important these days
in various environments. :-(

Unrelated to VMS, I am currently pulling together documentation on a
embedded board with a Chinese Allwinner Cortex-A8 MCU. The level of
the Allwinner MCU specific documentation, especially when compared to
MCU specific documentation from traditional manufacturers such as TI
and NXP is absolutely pathetic.

It seems like in some environments/cultures, no one cares about decent
documentation any more; in the embedded world in those cultures all you
get a blob of reference code covering some of the functionality instead
of the decent documentation. Even when the code is understandable, all
you get from it is _how_ something works, but not _why_ it works that way.

Knowledge gained in that way is fragile; you don't get any conceptual
level overview for how the device works and how, for example, various
register settings are interconnected in general.

So in summary, yes, bad documentation is more than a bit of a sore point
for me at the moment. :-(

Simon.

-- 
Simon Clubley, clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP
Microsoft: Bringing you 1980s technology to a 21st century world