At 01:50 PM 8/21/2006, W0UN -- John Brosnahan wrote: >At 02:33 PM 8/21/2006, you wrote: > > > >>Slow down! Not so fast! > >> > >>The skins do look great, but if I want to operate a radio that looks > like my > >>FT 1000, I'll turn off my SDR-1000 and turn on the black box. > >> > >>I'm tired of the old paradigm. The SDR is new, fresh and unconventional. > >>Don't make it like all the others. > >> > >>For those that want the skins, OK.. But I don't want to go back to the > >>conventional. > > >eg, a pull down menu with bandwidth selections is not as efficient >(in my book, not as >elegant) as a series of push buttons (or other single-step >selection). Pull downs require >two actions, pulling down the menu and then selecting the >value. Either separate push >buttons for each BW or a slider switch would be quicker. A slider >gives a "graphical" >indication of selection. A "lighted" push button can give you an >indication of the >selection at a glance. Much better than having to read the numbers. > >(BTW ALL of this mouse interface is not unlike the old comment about >using a mouse >in a paint program is like using a BRICK to paint in oil.)
Which is why I like tablets... I'm used to writing with a pen/pencil, ticking boxes, etc. I've just started to fool with trying to see if any of a host of logging/control programs will work with the handwriting recognition on my tablet. The primary problem with most applications is that they rely too much on mouse specific things that are plain old unnatural with a pen. Worse, they rely on a combination of mouse and keyboard at the same time. (Ctrl-Click, for instance, isn't doable with a tablet, unless you have the keyboard deployed) Of course, my tablet PC is never going to have the crunch to run the DSP, which is why I really, really am waiting for the radio/UI bifurcation to occur. (I have tried doing some things using the tablet as a remote console, using Timbuktu, but you keep running into places where you need a keyboard) I'd like to sit in a comfortable chair, with a BT headset (or not), and a footswitch(or not), and operate the radio with my tablet in my lap, without needing wires going this way and that. By the way, if anyone knows of a Bluetooth footswitch or PTT, I'd like to hear about it. All the BT products seem to be phone oriented. Maybe a unusual use of a BT serial port? I'll have to do some experiments with something like hooking a switch to one of the modem control lines. >Ergonomics and aesthetics are not mutually exclusive, but are very >subjective. >Separating the console from the radio allows a lot of options to >please everyone. > >In some ways, keyboard shortcuts are an admission that the interface is not as >good as it could be -- or an admission that a mouse-derived interface is >not as >efficient as it could be. Exactly... _______________________________________________ FlexRadio mailing list FlexRadio@flex-radio.biz http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexradio_flex-radio.biz Archive Link: http://www.mail-archive.com/flexradio%40flex-radio.biz/ FlexRadio Homepage: http://www.flex-radio.com
