Talk:IBM OfficeVision

OfficeVision/MVS

I've worked in places where Office Vision ran under MVS. Perhaps this article needs an update? -- Commking 22:55, 2 January 2006 (UTC)

OfficeVision screenshot

I don't have any "real" IBM OfficeVision screen captures since I never used the program, but I have seen a book that feature the PROFS main menu. Is it OK to recreate a likeness using a word processor, or is that a copyright infringement type of deal? Would IBM get upset at something like:

PROFS Main Menu

Press one of the following PF keys.
PF1 CALENDARS Process calendars.
PF2 OPEN the MAIL
PF3 TELEPHONE Directories
PF4 NOTES, Process notes, messages
PF5 MAINTAIN all my NOTELOGS
PF6 CONTROL nicknames and distribution
PF7 REMINDERS

==> _

I got this from a screenshot of the 3270 Workstation Program from Jim Hoskins IBM Personal System/2: A Business Perspective.

I think there's more to the menu than what I can see there... there was a photocopy I made of a book about 3270 emulation, but I can't remember where it is right now.

--Jimj wpg 03:42, 1 May 2007 (UTC)

Character set use not clear

The article notes the system started on VM, so was it EBCDIC? Then on OS/2, a system based on ASCII. Then Japanese and Chinese, UNICODE? Not clear 143.232.116.173 (talk) 18:16, 1 June 2010 (UTC)

"PROFSPROFS"?

I noticed a possible vandalism or typo in one of the paragraphs in the article:

"PROFSPROFS[12] and its e-mail component, known colloquially as PROFS Notes, featured prominently in the investigation of the Iran-Contra scandal. Oliver North believed he had deleted his correspondence, but the system archived it anyway. Congress subsequently examined the e-mail archives."

I have never seen reference to a PROFSPROFS before, just PROFS. Does this need to be corrected? Jimj wpg (talk) 02:10, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Good catch, Jimj wpg. I suspect PROFSPROFS was a cut and paste error. It does not appear in the cited source, just PROFS. I corrected it in the article. Cheers, --{{u|Mark viking}} {Talk} 02:45, 25 June 2019 (UTC)

Proposed merge with IBM DISOSS

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

To not merge on the grounds that these seems sufficiently distinct to warrant separate discussion; there is certainly no consensus for a merge, and discussion is stale. Klbrain (talk) 21:32, 23 August 2020 (UTC)

---

I believe that IBM DISOSS is just a former name for IBM OfficeVision/MVS. SJK (talk) 02:43, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

My understanding is that OfficeVision is more closely related to PROFS. I don't know much about DISOSS. Jimj wpg (talk) 07:01, 22 September 2019 (UTC)

I know that OV/VM was an "upgrade" of PROFS. The impression I get is that IBM's strategy was confused, and they were pressured to get a cross-platform product by SAA. However someone who knows more about DISOSS needs to chime in here. We used both PROFS and OV/VM, but never DISOSS on out MVS system. Peter Flass (talk) 21:09, 23 September 2019 (UTC)

Unfortunately, I have no first-hand knowledge or experience of any of these systems. But the article right now implies that OV/MVS is a successor to DISOSS just as OV/VM is a successor to PROFS, whether or not that is true. I believe this book ISBN 9780134478067 explains it all, if anyone has access to a copy (I don't.) (Nearest library to me having a copy is 700 km away.) SJK (talk) 12:18, 24 September 2019 (UTC)

First of all, the PROFs name was used by media in 1990, and had nothing to do with DISOSS, a separate product. Second, A May 1989 newsbrief item said:

"A similar fate awaits IBM’s Profs and DisOSS mainframe systems; post-September 1990, Profs will become OfficeVision/VM, and DisOSS OfficeVision/MVS, both similarly equipped with iconic interfaces – it is what is known as conversion by stealth."

It's saying that PROFS and DISOSS were separate products, but that their destiny was somehow linked. Although neither article has much detail, I see this like the matter of Software fault tolerance and Fault tolerance ... both more refs. I'm tempted to work on one or both of them, since a portion of MVS needs to Wikilink to one of them, but at least for now I'm not proposing a merge. My opinion holds for both FAULT and PROFs/OV/DIS - leave separate for now, at least until each is individually improved. Pi314m (talk) 17:31, 3 May 2020 (UTC)

OPPOSE: Not that familiar with DISOSS. OV/MVS was (is?) similar to OV/VM (PROFS). The impression I get is thst DISOSS is a backend document repository for various disparate systems. Maybe IBM bundled DISOSS and OV/MVS.

IBM office systems that may be connected through DISOSS to OfficeVision/MVS series, are OV/VM, OV/400, PS/CICS, PS/TSO, PS/PC, PROFS, and other Mail Systems Supporting SNADS and DIA. Only a single copy of DISOSS needs to be installed somewhere in the network to accomplish the connection.

Peter Flass (talk) 20:54, 4 May 2020 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

References