Shared 3000 Knowledge: Robelle
May 26, 2010
Well before the rest of the 3000 community discovered it, Robelle used the Web. Former president David Greer told us in an interview in 1999 the company posted its first Web pages in 1994. By the time the 3000 NewsWire mounted its first Web pages early in 1996, Robelle was already showing off its expertise delivering information on the Web. Much of the wisdom's presentation follows the Keep It Simple, Stupid mantra.
Robelle's site brims with 3000 help but never tempts you to watch movies, paw through a Flash presentation or prowl into a company photo album. Instead, the supplier of database language tools dishes out 3000 knowledge with the most straightforward of interfaces. Robelle taught us to keep our own Web designs simple enough that anyone would be able to access the knowledge. Robelle's been building these resources for 30 years by now.
One unique resource on the Robelle Website is its collection of consultants. The company has selected and screened these consultants for experience in Qedit, Suprtool and Suprtool-based applications. The providers Robelle has cataloged know the HP 3000 at an advanced level; Suprtool and Qedit were born and grew up on the 3000.
There's a modest list of 3000 consultants at the OpenMPE site, one that hasn't been updated in almost five years. But professional companies are providing 3000 knowledge resources which are more current. On the other hand, there's timeless 3000 information at robelle.com.
The Robelle site uses solid layout, but it also tells visitors how to create and maintain good Websites in Creating a widely accessible web site. (Most timeless tip: Myth 3, Everyone uses Browser X. "By using features that transform gracefully and by providing alternatives, your web site contents can be accessible to most browsers.")
3000-specific information in the Robelle Papers library includes Transforming TurboIMAGE Data for Eloquence, Oracle, and More by Bob Green and Living with 400 I/O’s per second by Neil Armstrong. If you're preparing for life with a new mission-critical database, or caring for a 3000 in homestead mode, these can be helpful. And you'd never have thought that papers written five or eight years ago could remain relevant.
Perhaps the most useful reference page of all on the Robelle site is its archive of the What's Up Doc? newsletters the staff produced during the years 2000-2007. An MPE for Unix users series floats through this shared stream during 2004, to get you started; Part 3 covers The Complex World of Files in October, 2004. For a dynamite collection of 3000 lore, try the On-line Encylopedia for HP Users. This was once called the Seldom Met Users Group (SMUG) Book, printed back in the day when there were few other options.
Today we have links, PDF files -- even PDF files of NewsWire articles which were once hosted by another company, interviewing the founder of yet another key shared knowledge resource, Beechglen. 3kworld.com is long gone, but as long as there's power running to a steady server, shared 3000 knowledge will remain compiled and ready. Where better than Robelle to find a concise definition of the MPE Deadly Embrace?