CompuServe Messages

Gary, I've been in the software business for a long time, I currently have a real job for a company that sells high end EDA software for the design of ASICs. Our surveys have forund that most people prefer to have hard bound documentation. Since that is the case, we have gone to CD-ROM only documentation. (What???) the reason is not really just to piss off the customer, but is primarily to save money. Our software takes up over 650Mb of disk!!! and it came with a complete bookshelf (25+ books) of documentation which cost us several thousand dollars to print. So to reduce our overhead cost, we put out a CD-ROM Doc. If customers want hard copy, they can get several reams of paper ready and print it themselves. I think this is a bum deal…. but I don't make those kind of decisions. Our software costs a couple hundred thousand dollars and I think for that price you should get a hard copy of the manual. In a more esoteric area, as director of Asia/Pacific operations for the company, when I visit a customer, I check to see what manuals are on the shelves of the engineers… This tells me what other software the customer is using. Thus if the doc is on CD there is no brand recognition/marketing effect in the end user environment. I know this is a bit obscure, but don't under estimate the marketing power of the documentation. At my other job here at AM Productions, IMOHO, I like the hard documentation better than on-line CD stuff, especialy if it is an additional CD since my CD-ROM already has the 3DS ROM for mapping paths. switching would be a hassle and I don't think I'll go to any of the fancy Multi-CD drives. In addition, it's difficult to follow examples/reference with an additional window covering the primary work area. Just too cluttered for me. The tutorial may work well on CD, but would require an awful lot of work to make it as interactive as the book can be. I'd pay extra to have the manual if it came down to it. Tom