Quote:
so much for self-explamatory, intuitively obvious software... which is what I'd sworn it was :(
Hi, Ángel;
I cannot help telling you that there is no such thing as 'intuitively obvious software'... After studying semiotics I got to the conclusion that everything is obvious once known. As you created the MMI (Man-Machine Interface), it is obvious for you, of course! And it will be for all of us... once we get to know it! 8^)
I remember struggling to understand ISG/DSE and flags for the first time in my life after buying an HP41 in the 80's. I was a regular engineering student in an university with only one computer to serve its own needs. We had to program in FORTRAN with punched cards and wait for about a week to have the results (or to see the list of errors) of our code. Suddenly I had an alphanumeric display (easy) with keystroke programming (easy), subroutines (easy), indirect addressing (easy) flags (what are those for?) and loop control through ISG and DSE (What?!!??).
Took me almost a week to figure the whole calculator out, with no help at all, just reading the manual (it was in English and I was not so proficient as I am today...). And I remember the HP survey about the learning curve:
How long did it take for you to master the HP41?
And the last option was
More than eight hours
I felt embarrassed with myself... Now I teach people how to use these features and how they work.
So please, do not blame yourself. Allow us to get in touch with your thoughts first by reading the manual. THEN... we´ll talk about this again 8^D
Cheers.
Luiz (Brazil)
Edited: 8 Jan 2010, 7:48 p.m.