S/36Doc (skating on thin ice)

Folks -- While I am all for saving and scanning docs for older computers - I must say that this latest talk about scanning and making public relatively current IBM stuff is scary and dangerous. S/370(ish)s and S/36s are still out there, in suprising numbers. IBM has NOT given any permission for us to make the information public. Please, people, do not make this stuff public until IBM blesses it. They have been turning a blind eye in the classic computing world, but we would not want them to clamp down, would we? Lets wait a few years...anyway, S/36 and S/370 docs are fairly common. Now older IBMs - 650s, 1130s, and the like - are pretty much fair game, and I doubt IBM would really care. S/1s, S/3s, S/7s, S/88s, 8100s, and PC stuff, however, might cause problems. William Donzelli aw288(a)osfn.org I won't speak for other systems, but IBM publishes nothing for the hardware or original software on System/36 or System/38. The only reference they make to it anymore is the emulated environment still available under OS/400. I have a few contacts at IBM, and I've been in contact with their publications people. I haven't broached the subject yet, but I believe IBM like other vendors embraces it's history and will at least tacitly support hobbyists. My own strategy with System/36 will be to create the electronic media, then offer it to them as a _fait acompli_. I'm intending to ask them to host the documents themselves. I don't believe they'll do so on their publication website -- but IBM maintains a substantial forrest of FTP servers it's used for 15 years or more to support it's sales partners and field representatives. That seems a likely place to put them. I'm guessing the real reason why these things aren't available is IBM didn't wish to invest the time in maintaining them. They also wanted to encourage migration. But hobbyist are a new and accomodating market. And I have a certain amount of faith we'll see encouragement from them. First things first though. I actually have to get a hold of the document set. Irregardless of web availability, I'm sure an email in the right (my) direction will yeild results, when there are results to yield :->~ nudge nudge, wink wink, knowwhaddamean?! Colin Eby Senior Consultant CSC Consulting