HP's documents for 3000s are in the open
October 4, 2013
Yesterday we bemoaned the lack of working, sensible links for 3000 documents at Hewlett-Packard websites. Links go rotten all the time on the Web. But you'd hope that an enterprise computer vendor might put a better face out there about products it still controls. Well, at least the control of the intellectual property rights.
Give thanks for your independent community, because that's where the elusive information has washed up, like a survivor from a vendor's shipwreck. Brian Edminster updated us on where those 3000 and MPE documents can be found. It's not an HP website. Yesterday I wrote, "The whereabouts of MPE manuals at HP sites is a treasure hunt with no apparent prize at the moment." Edminster replied
I can help with this. www.MPE-OpenSource.org has the current links to the HP MPE/iX manuals.
Navigation via the menus/pulldowns is: (from the site's homepage at MPE-OpenSource.org:)
[Porting Helps]
[Manuals & Other] Documentation Materials
[MPE/iX Core Manual Sets] - which has individual links to the 6.x and 7.x manual sets, and which when clicked will open in a new window.
And when they do finally fall to the dreaded 'link-rot' (either due to lack of link forwarding, or just plain being taken offline), I have mirrored both v6.x and v7.x manual pages and content, and can make them available directly, if necessary.
There's also the HP MM Support site's copy of HP Manuals (www.hpmmsupport.com/information_links/default.aspx). Plus I'm pretty sure there's a copy at the 'Internet Archives' (www.archive.org) and/or at bitsavers (www.bitsavers.org). Of course, there's copies that individuals have in PDF format in their own archives -- or heaven forbid, in the original printed-on-paper format.
So no need to panic. There are still organizations and individuals working to make sure MPE and 3000 documentation is available, for as long as necessary.