🚀 go-pugleaf

Kevin, you're a life saver! I recently downloaded IBM DB2 9.1 boo
files and gou this naughty surprise:

http://publibfp.boulder.ibm.com/cgi-bin/bookmgr/BOOKS/DSNAGK13/FRONT_1.2?SHELF=dsnshk13&DT=20081124004135
FRONT_1.2 The future direction for the BookManager format

As part of IBM's ongoing effort to deliver the best possible
information experience to our customers, we are optimizing the
information that is delivered with DB2 for z/OS for viewing in the
information center and phasing out the BookManager® format.

The BookManager books will continue to be provided for the life cycle
of DB2 UDB for z/OS Version 8 and DB2 Version 9.1 for z/OS; however,
we do not intend to deliver BookManager books for releases after DB2
Version 9.1 for z/OS.

The Information Management Software for z/OS Solutions Information
Center includes all of the information that you are used to seeing in
BookManager and PDF, plus many improved features for finding and
viewing the information that you need to do your job. You can find the
information center at the following Web site: http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/imzic

We welcome your feedback about the information center. You can submit
comments through the online reader comment form at the following Web
site: http://www.ibm.com/software/data/rcf.

I have tons of manuals in boo format, and some of those I'm sure I'll
find no PDF replacement because they're old, but still used, Mainframe
products.

Is it in your plans a downloadable version that can process .boo files
in batch mode? It sure would be time saver for me.

Thanks!


On 20 out, 04:28, Kevin Bowling <kevin.bowl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Please take this for a spin and let me know the results.http://ps-2.kev009.com:8081/boo2pdf/
>
> About:
> This is a beta of boo2pdf, an IBM BookManager to PDF conversion app &
> web service.  I'm currently experimenting with the HTML to PDF
> backends and would like feedback with book files I haven't tried.
> Once the code is cleaned up, I will dump it on my site.
>
> Motivation:
> I have a large collection of old IBM machines and documentation.  I
> want this documentation indexed by my own search facilities and Google
> for easy retrieval.  PDF is widely read, while BookManager requires
> proprietary software and no search engines I know of parse it.
>
> This will probably be useful to Mainframers as well.
>
> Technical details:
> I am using the JAR files from IBM SoftCopy Reader for Linux.  I've
> decompiled these and written my own main class and and a wrapper
> script to take care of setting the LD_LIBRARY_PATH, Java classpath,
> and other such glue code.  I use SoftCopy Reader's API to output HTML
> and images from the BookManager files.  I then pass this to htmldoc
> (http://www.htmldoc.org/) for PDF conversion.
>
> Known Limitations:
> - Currently, internal hyperlinks and headings are not parsed, indexed,
> or otherwise handled.
> - The Linux SoftCopy Reader does not convert some of the older
> embedded image formats.  Possible formats are:  GIF, PNG. JPG, MET,
> GDF, WMF.  I'm guessing it is one of the later that does not have a
> Linux filter.  You will know an image did not convert by red text
> indicating such in your PDF.  I've seen this in a few .boo files from
> the early to mid '90s.
>
> The whole app as it stands now is an exercise in inefficiency.  I
> think I have enough data to bitbang a clean C implementation but would
> need a lot of help in doing so.
>
> Documentation, help, or words of encouragement welcome.  This has been
> a fun and interesting project this weekend.