..or even option 3: send a request to a Mainframe via datalink..., and wait, fingers crossed, for the reply.
But even in that "high tech" method you get your colleague(s) to cross check what you've typed in by the way of data ( e.g. runway, wind, temperature, QNH) before pressing the "send" button...and you cross check the reply carefully as well....and if it all falls down it's back to the manuals.