HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
Restrictions in a Multi-vendor Network
With HP Desk installations that connect to foreign systems, to form a
multi-vendor network, there are certain restrictions.
Firstly, it's clear that only when connecting one HP Desk system to
another, can full compatibility of all features be achieved. When HP
Desk connects to any other messaging system, that system will be designed
to optimize the hardware that it runs on and to meet the needs of a
slightly different user population. Therefore, connection of such
systems can at best, provide users of both systems with a subset of
facilities and a similar interface.
Examples of this are:
* Incompatibility of differing addressing conventions.
* Acknowledgments given at different times and in different ways.
* Conversion of the character set used from USASCII to EBCDIC.
* Word processed documents may be degraded in conversion from one
word processor format to another.
* Files containing forms, graphics, or other special formats may not
be able to be translated to a format that is usable on the other
system.
HP Desk provides features to overcome some of these problems, for example
document conversion programs and foreign address aliasing, both of which
are introduced in Chapter 4 .
The connections provided by Hewlett-Packard to, for example, IBM office
systems come complete with documentation that describes any differences
that users of HP Desk or the IBM system may experience. This enables you
to plan the use of your multi-vendor network in an optimal manner.