AMEN!!  I am new to the wonderful world of ADSM.. er-- Tivoli Storage Manager,
and navigating thru IBMs/Tivoli's websites is nightmarish.  I constantly try to
do a "HELP ANS **** (ANR ****) at the ADSM prompt, and invariably it tells me it
doesn't have any thing on its index.  I can't find out what the Remote Client
Agent service is.   The help file says that the Client Acceptor will come on
automatically when needed.... but actually, you need to install the service so
that it starts automatically at boot.  And I thought that Micro$oft  was bad at
documentation and wrote sloppy code ;-)

IBM, Tivoli-- if you are listening- please make error messages actually useful,
and please make your online help and documentation worth the space it takes up
on the hard drive!!!

Lisa Cabanas







Richard Sims <rbs AT BU DOT EDU> on 10/07/99 06:46:39 AM

Please respond to "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>








 To:      ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU

 cc:      (bcc: Lisa Cabanas/SC/MODOT)



 Subject: Re: ADSM 3.1.0.7 client on AIX 4.3








>We just installed the 3.1.0.7 client on AIX 4.3 and it appears to have
>started the scheduler successfully and backed up a file successfully,   but
>with every command, regardless of it's successful completion,  we get an
>error in the DSMERROR.LOG:
>     Pattern compilation failed  mxCompile  rc=149

As a programmer myself, a huge pet peeve is the lazy programming we find like
this in so many vendor packages.  The software found a problem...it knows what
the problem is and exactly where it is...but the developer chose not to bother
to emit a specifying error message, leaving the user of the software with a
uselessly vague error message which provides no assistance (read "value
added") in eliminating the problem.  Programmers who do this seem to think
that this is some sort of game of "guess what's wrong", as though the
customer has hours of time to chase vagueries.

To any Tivoli development managers reading this List:
Make sure your programming staff is writing error handling which actually
helps the customer.  Have code reviews conducted by staffers who will
scrutinize it for usefulness of error messages.  Enforce standards for error
handling.  Produce error messages which explain what's wrong, where, and
assure that the Messages manual fully explains causality in real world terms
rather than just parroting the error message.  In short, assure that error
handling that helps the customer quickly elminate problems, and it not a
problem itself.

   thanks,  Richard Sims, Boston University OIT