Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!shelby!msi.umn.edu!noc.MR.NET!gacvx2.gac.edu!hhdist
From: NU123952@VM1.NoDak.EDU (Mark A. Ordal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.handhelds
Subject: ROM versions and upgrades
Message-ID: <633148B940000929@gacvx2.gac.edu>
Date: 3 Feb 91 04:09:13 GMT
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network
Lines: 35
Return-path: <NU123952@VM1.NoDak.EDU>
To: handhelds@gac.edu


  While on the question of ROM upgrades, I want to mention what I
heard last March when I bought my revision A machine.  My dealer
heard that 500 people were given free, pre-release, HP48's around
Thanksgiving of '89.  These folks were (apparently) the people posting
extensive features lists the same day the 48 was officially released.

  Does anyone know if this is true?  If true, were those machines
revision A?

  My gut reaction to this rumor is that it is true and that the
machines involved were revision A.

So my questions really are:

 1) Why were revision A machines sold at all?  The usual purpose
    of this kind of pre-release testing is to kill as many bugs
    as possible before the software (or firmware) is actually
    released for sale.

 2) Why weren't competent testers chosen?  Or if they were
    competent, how is it that so many ROM versions were made
    without killing bugs?  It took until version D to kill the
    matrix inverse bug (which fortunately had a simple work
    around) and until version E to kill the complex number bug
    (which has NO WORK AROUND!).

I have to wonder if management wasn't applying extreme pressure
to get the product out the door and onto dealer's shelves.

               Dr. Mark A. Ordal
               Physics Department
               North Dakota State University
               Fargo, ND 58105
               NU123952@NDSUVM1