Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!fernwood!portal!cup.portal.com!Jake-S
From: Jake-S@cup.portal.com (Jake G Schwartz)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: Re: Crazy dreams of HP48's with touchscreens
Message-ID: <38279@cup.portal.com>
Date: 21 Jan 91 00:47:05 GMT
References: <38125@cup.portal.com>
  <279940f8:1727.5comp.sys.handhelds;1@hpcvbbs.UUCP>
Organization: The Portal System (TM)
Lines: 58

Scotty Thompson writes:

> Well, it should keep you all busy if you want to make a touch-screen for
> this HP48SX, but it's just as easy to hit the softkey as it is to press
> the screen.  Besides, who wants fingerprints all over the 48?  Yeach!    
> I keep my calc VERY clean, thank you...

The touch screen replacing the top row of keys was just a tangible example
of what would be possible. I am personally frustrated by a custom menu which
only identifies six key definitions at one time. Why not have multiple rows
of definitions? Why can't we see the entire OBJ or CTRL or other menus AT
ONE TIME, thus preventing the need for NEXT and PREV menu keys? I want them
all in front of me at a glance. This would translate into fewer keystrokes
and more ease of use. (Of course other considerations come up, but again, 
this is another example of the possibilities with a touchscreen.)


Andrey Dolgachev writes:

> Is it just me or is this getting a little wierd?  Isn't it enough that
> we're playing tetris, managing our lives and file-servers, calling
> boards, downloading 3-d drawing programs, etc. for a CALCULATOR?!  I
> mean, really, I'm still impressed with everything that I can do with my
> 48sx.

I am also very impressed with what this machine can do. But that doesn't 
stop me from attempting to "peel back the onion" a layer at a time and 
delve into the RPL internals and machine code with help from the pioneers 
(Alonzo, Rick, Jim, Bill, Jan, Derek,etc). I haven't gotten into playing 
games with my machine like some of the others, but I have tried to make the
unit do things that weren't designed in, like adding full HP16C capability.
One thing that stifles some of these possibilities is not being able to
design my own keyboard a la Macintosh Hypercard. I'd like my keys to be
wherever I want them, as big and small as I want and labelled with whatever
I wish to put on them. A touchscreen would solve many of these problems
(and not without adding some other ones like dirty screens, lack of adequate
tactile feedback, etc.) in my opinion. I know I can throw a keyboard overlay
onto my machine  each time I wish to change the "mode" into a custom-designed
unit, but this isn't as convenient.


To Joe Horn - 

     Thanks for telling some of the folks here about "ancient
calculator history", when wish lists were the norm.  If we don't ask for
new things or speculate what is possible, then the designers at the factory
in Corvallis will do that for us. How can they know what is desired if we
don't suggest things? On the other hand, if Bill Wickes and his team didn't
ask themselves what *they'd* like to see in the next machine and operating
system back in 1985, where would we be today? Probably using our HP41's or
frustrated with what the Japanese products cannot quite do properly.

    In spite of all the flack the HP folks have gotten over their recent
television and magazine ads, we must assist them in continually asking 
"What If?".


Jake Schwartz