Documentation (was SMP and 7.x performance questions)

[snip] someone correctly observed: >> additional options and parameters that it supports. The onstat utility >> is ***greatly*** improved, although somewhat sparsely documented. but Dave Kosenko <davek@informix.com> from "Informix Professional Services" wrote: >Much of the onstat output that is undocumented is meaningless without an >understanding of complex internals. This is not to say that all the undoc'ed >stuff requires a rocket scientist; just that some of it isn't worth bothering >to document for the vast majority of users. I say: What about the remaining users who have a good understanding of the internals and want to know!!!! If the utilities provide useful information - tell us what it means. If the information is of no use take it out, but don't report lots of "stuff" and then leave us guessing. Informix documentation has had a reputation for being a bit on the light side - which may be ok for clarity but when we want to get down to the nitty gritty, where can we go for the information? Most of the time Informix support is unable to answer questions about the undocumented output of various utilities - now I just don't bother asking. It would help if internal documentation was made available so that the various local support teams could answer questions, but sadly that does not appear to be the case. Whilst I agree that the documentation has improved significantly over the last few years, there is still plenty of room for further improvement. I hope the attitude of "it isn't worth bothering to document" changes soon. (c) 1996, All rights reserved. __________________________________________________________ | o o | | Gavin Nour: nourg@acslink.net.au | | Director: Select Software Solutions Pty Ltd. | | Secretary: Informix User Group NSW, Australia. | | Committee member: International Informix User Group. | | Mobile: +(61) 0419 803 113 | | o o | |__________________________________________________________|