Newsgroups: comp.sys.palmtops
Subject: Re: Wizard->95LX  (and 95LX bug alert)
From: vcmgt0j7@VAX.CSUN.EDU (Mingfang Li)
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 03:40:02 GMT
Reply-To: vcmgt0j7@VAX.CSUN.EDU
Organization: Cal State Northridge

In article <=fyjjs+@dixie.com>, jgd@dixie.com (John De Armond) writes:
>st901745@pip.cc.brandeis.edu (Alastair M. Bor) writes:
>
>>I just bought a 95LX and I was wondering if there is a quick and easy
>>way to transfer my phone book entries from my Wizard128K to my 95LX.
>>I have the connectivity pack for both units...
>
>No.  And coming from a sharp Wizard to the 95 as I did, you'll
>find the phone manager hideous.  The memo editor too, for that
>matter.   All the nice stuff you're used to in the Wizard such
>as the big search key, data being committed to permanent memory
>just by entering it, the freeform fields in the phone list
>manager, the page-oriented text manager are all missing.  The
>phone manager is so bad, particularly compared to the free form
>Wizard manager, that I'm currently just keeping a text file
>version of my Wizard database as a memo file while I write a
>sysmgr-compliant Wizard-emulated phone list manager with a text manager
>to follow.   
>
>If you choose to use any of the Lotus written crap, er, I mean 
>built-in applications, be SURE to backup often, like every day at
>the minimum, and before you do any major changes.   It is trivial to lose data 
>on the 95 quite unlike the Wizard, where the only time I ever lost any data 
>was when my house burned and the Wizard went with it.

This is a fresh voice among HP95LX users to complain the poorly-written 
builtin apps of LX.  I returned my Wizard for an HP95LX, only finding that I 
still miss a lot of the nice features of Wizard.  In addition to the limited 
and poorly conceived features, the builtin programs managed to limited the 
useable screen space at a minimun, we see several lines on top, and two lines 
at bottom that could have been reduced to a minimum and made as an option so 
most of already limited space is available to data, be it phone numbers or 
text messages.

Besides, the keyboard is terrible.  Talk about the hardware, keyboard is a 
most important interface between a user and the machine.  HP seems to be 
proud of their keyboard design.  I find much better keyboards on other 
machines.

I wonder if companies ever listen to their customers.  Listening is probably 
one of the key tasks for those companies that wish to be competitive in 
today's market.



>
>While I'm at it, here is a very serious bug alert regarding the memo
>editor.
>
>In the new 1 mb 95, edit a moderate sized file, say 40k, say, your
>phone list.  Several times (>3), cut text from the file and change
>to another file via the <menu> <file> <open> and so on keystrokes 
>in order to paste.  Save the original file before changing 
>to the other file each time.  After 4 or 5 cuts, you will be unable
>to save the original file.  The application will report an out of 
>disk space error.  Trying to save to another name will cause the same thing
>to happen.  Since this idiotic software deletes the old file before
>saving it out, your original file (your phone list, remember) is 
>gone.   
>
>I have no expansion slot RAM and the 1 mb is divided with 638K in the
>RAMdisk and 386K TPA.
>
>A workaround that works sometimes is to cut the whole file, switch to 
>a new name, abandoning the edit in the process, and paste the cut text,
>then save the new file.  Sometimes it works and sometimes the new
>file cannot be saved either.  The other workaround is to strap on
>the serial interface and copy your backup data back onto the 95.
>
>After having had my 95 for a couple of months I'm beginning to wonder
>if anyone on the development team ever actually uses the 95.  It seems
>to me to be just the inverse of the Wizard.  The Wizard had crappy
>hardware but excellent applications; the HP hardware is nice but the
>apps suck.
>
>Hey HP, why not make an "engineering" version of this thing - you know,
>rediscover your roots.  Include DOS and sysmgr as an API, then give us more
>RAM in place of all that wasted ROM space that now contains 123 and
>the other blue keys.  Then we could install apps that work.  If you 
>REALLY have to install an app, put something like MathCAD or TK!Solver
>or even an HP-4{1,8} emulator onboard.
>
>John
>-- 
>John De Armond, WD4OQC        | What's the difference between Jane Fonda
>Rapid Deployment System, Inc. | and Bill Clinton?  Hanoi Jane went to 
>Marietta, Ga                  | Viet Nam.              
>jgd@dixie.com                 | Need public access in Atl?  Write me.
=================================================================
Mingfang Li
Department of Management, California State University, Northridge
Internet: MLI@VAX.CSUN.EDU
=================================================================
From: peer@hpbbrd.bbn.hp.com (Peter Ernst)
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 07:09:36 GMT
Subject: Re: ylisp, freyja 1.3, diet, DC95
Organization: HP Mechanical Design Division