New releases

[Peet]

(06-11-2021 08:41 AM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  So the least that can be said is that you did not make it clear at all that you didn't have access to the last version.

I'm just trying to help, there is no need to be that abrupt with me.

The new version already works on Android 11.

(06-11-2021 06:33 AM)Peet Wrote:  The current version also still has some obvious flaws.

E.g. it often crashes when clicking on the overlay symbol (full close) and many of the previous changes (program input, import, key assignment) are lost.
The design/look on smartphones with round corners (nearly all newer ones) is "broken" and the android soft-buttons can hardly be reached.

no comment

[Massimo Gnerucci]

It just updated (again) on my phone; the claim is compatibility with Android 6+.

[Vincent Weber]

(06-11-2021 09:12 AM)Massimo Gnerucci Wrote:  It just updated (again) on my phone; the claim is compatibility with Android 6+.

I told you
I have been encouraging Olivier a lot, patiently and kindly, asking politely for bug corrections and new features, as well as compatibility corrections for my Android 9, and that's a much more efficient way to gets things done..

[johanw]

The new 15c and 16c (version 1.2.1) work flawlessly on my tablet, Android 6 phone and Android 10 phone. Nice job.

[aamiel]

Same problem here with Sony Xperia XZ1 Android 9, 1080x1920. Works flawlessly on my Pixel 4

[rprosperi]

No bashing was intended for my part, I'm just asking if the same upgrades (to work on newer versions of Android) are coming for some of the emulators I purchased.

I get that chasing Android issues is thankless and never-ending, so I am sympathetic to Olivier's plight, but can admit to frustration at getting no answers at all, both to posts here and emails over the past few years. Vincent has commented that Olivier is "back", so obviously was side-tracked for some time with personal issues, so this at least explains the past silence, and good to hear the issues are in the past. Hopefully, now that Olivier is back, we will hear some more about future update plans. Personally, I prefer a frank "I will not be updating that" over no reply at all.

go41cx Feedback - I just today got an update for go41cx, to v1.8.6. The bottom portion of the 41 keyboard is now always covered by the Android system control bar (w/back, home and taks mgr buttons - not sure of the proper name for that). In the past, this would retract and be out of the way, though available by swiping-up if needed. This behavior of retracting still occurs on the same device with older versions of goxx emulators I have installed. So this seems to be a regression error/issue; I am running Android 8.0 and can provide other details if that will help.

[Vincent Weber]

Try the "full" option in settings. It should fix that

[johanw]

(06-11-2021 03:32 PM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  Try the "full" option in settings. It should fix that

You mean the Android settings for the app I assume, because goxx has no such setting. That setting is only available on recent Android versions, I have seen it on 9 and 10, not on 7 (and I never had an Android 8 device so I don't know about that).

I think it is best to mention the exact version number of the app that causes problems, otherwise the discussion becomes quickly very difficult to follow for anyone, especially Olivier.

[Vincent Weber]

(06-11-2021 03:47 PM)johanw Wrote:  

(06-11-2021 03:32 PM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  Try the "full" option in settings. It should fix that

You mean the Android settings for the app I assume, because goxx has no such setting. That setting is only available on recent Android versions, I have seen it on 9 and 10, not on 7 (and I never had an Android 8 device so I don't know about that).

I think it is best to mention the exact version number of the app that causes problems, otherwise the discussion becomes quickly very difficult to follow for anyone, especially Olivier.

Forget about the old go41cx which is outdated. The new one, which is flawless, runs on Android 6+, so it should be fine for your 7. Go to the play store, you should be proposed an upgrade
I actually meant the new go41cx "full" option in "Settings", that allows you to use fullscreen on new phones.

[johanw]

Ah OK. I Downgraded go41cx to 1.7.0 due to screen visibility issues I had with 1.8.1.

[Vincent Weber]

(06-11-2021 04:44 PM)johanw Wrote:  Ah OK. I Downgraded go41cx to 1.7.0 due to screen visibility issues I had with 1.8.1.

1.8.6 should rock for you, let me know ! Cheers

[Valentin Albillo]

.
Hi, Vincent

(06-11-2021 04:49 AM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  I'm sorry to read about your bad experience with Go71b.

"Bad" is not the word for it but the appropriate ones (several) are not fit for this nice forum.

Quote:I didn't experience that on my phone, but I certainly did not test it as touroughly as you did.

I wasn't testing it, I just tried to get some work done with it, as J-F Garnier's fabulous Emu71 doesn't run on Android or 64-bit Windows.

Quote:Did you report all this problems to Olivier ?

Yes, but he never replied a thing nor did he ever correct anything.

Quote:I can tell you that he cares a lot for every single detail, not even mentioning such big issues. Go15c is the most precise 15C emulator by far, with correct synthetics, which even HP did not provide with their own apps...and Go41cx is extremely complete and thrustworthy.

Nice to hear but I don't want platitudes, I want existing serious problems addressed and he should first address such problems before engaging in miscellaneous niceties such as "15C synthetics". I understand than the latter seems much more exciting than the chore of correcting problems but that's the thing to do if you're serious about your paying customers.

Quote:I understand from him that go71b is his next target for upgrade, after the LEDs and the Voyagers.

Very good news. That is, if at long long long last he actually delivers.

Quote:This being said, I think a couple of things are forgotten here:

1) Olivier has been out of touch for quite a while. It is certainly frustrating when you expect an upgrade,

I don't want an "upgrade", as in "new functionalities" or "synthetics" added, which I couldn't care less as long as the release I bought performs as intended. Alas, it never did, so what I expect is for its tremendous problems to be addressed promptly, before the "niceties" if possible.

Quote:but Olivier like many is doing this as a hobby, not as full time professional job, and he is entitled to a personal life.

He is charging money for his productions so the "hobby" part doesn't exactly apply. If he takes money he must deliver and provide a working product in return. I can understand that bugs may arise but the so-crippling and show-stopping ones must be addressed promptly, not when he feels like it. If he doesn't want to, he must not accept customers, and if he feels the price is too low to bother, he can raise the price to what he would think acceptable. I don't mind paying ten times as much as long as the product works as it should, I lost much more than that in wasted time and frustration.

Quote:2) [...]The problems you have with Go71b are the exception, not the rule.

That, I don't know. I'm only telling about my own experience but I know of other people with similar disatisfactions, in older threads and even in this very thread as well. See the quote at the end of this message.

Quote:3) Android is a developper's nightmare. [...] This is Google's fault.

Maybe, but it isn't Google's fault that he doesn't bother to reply to paying customers' complaints about severe bugs or at least keep them informed on the status of the corrections or the reasons you mentioned, or of clearly specifying which versions work in which Android systems, etc. He just keeps ignoring us and silent for years. That's not Google's fault, is it ?

Quote:Based on all the above, I think we shall all be a bit nicer to Olivier, especially now that he is back in business. He needs to be encouraged, not bashed...

I gave him encouragement enough when I paid (twice) the price he asked for go71b. In return he provided me with an extremely faulty product. And stating true facts doesn't constitute "bashing". If he corrects the problems, I'll be satisfied, period.

Again: If he isn't capable of delivering at the asked price, he can always raise it as he sees fit. And if he doesn't feel like correcting problems or at the very least addressing his customers' concerns, he should stop taking customers.

Finally, retaking the "exception" part, have a look at this relatively recent (2020) thread, from which I quote a message posted by Bob Prosperi:

https://www.hpmuseum.org/forum/thread-14...#pid131519

Quote:The author of these goxx apps is a member here and does stop-by from time to time. He has stated exactly what you've commented on, and inferred (if not stated directly) that creating new emulators was more interesting than constantly having to maintain his (large number) of existing apps just to keep them working as new versions of Android come out.

And although he used to reply promptly to support issues and questions, that pretty much seems to have stopped a few years ago. I've sent several messages since 2017 and not received any replies.

Although these apps were not too expensive (I purchased 3 or 4 of them) I would expect at least some short reply, even if it was to say the app I bought is no longer supported on version XYZ, etc. The author's products remain available for purchase so it seems not unreasonable to expect a reply.

Hopefully he'll see our posts and comment here

He didn't.

Best regards.
V.

[rprosperi]

(06-11-2021 03:32 PM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  Try the "full" option in settings. It should fix that

And indeed that does fix it! I did check the product page and did not see mention of this, though I guess I could have just toggled every setting... What confused me is this was not the way it behaved before, and other goxx apps did not do so.

Thanks Vincent!

[Peet]

(06-11-2021 08:07 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  And indeed that does fix it!

On which device? On my Google Pixel 2 XL with Android 11 with go41cx 1.86 in normal mode the Android-keys covers the last row and in "full-mode" it is impossible to activate the Android-keys without pressing a calculator-key ... and then there are the cut edges, sound errors, key click uses volume for ringtine, sometime force closes with data loss when presssing the overlay key ... (OK I better stop here, because its not relevant to the initial question).

The good thing: After more than a half year without be able to use the app it now runs on all three devices on which I could not use the 1.81 Version.

[rprosperi]

(06-11-2021 08:25 PM)Peet Wrote:  

(06-11-2021 08:07 PM)rprosperi Wrote:  And indeed that does fix it!

On which device?

My Android 8.0 phone I mentioned in my post above where I described the issue.

[Vincent Weber]

Hi Valentin,

Again, I understand your frustrations about what happened for go71b. Just a couple of comments that I hope may soften your position a bit:

1) I won't go into transaction details that are private to you and Olivier, but I understand that you wanted a specific way of purchase (which Oliver gracefully honored), without going to the Play Store, and in the process you ended up paying twice, but one of them being refundable by the store. To make things clear for others, Olivier never asked you to pay double the price, and didn't lock you in this situation.

2) Before purchasing you had a discussion with Olivier about your needs, the main one being having a multi-line display. Olivier did not intend to emulate the HP-IL, but instead he developped a custom mini-screen, with full support for escape sequences (cursor handling), just for you. That is comitment IMHO. Ok, after that, Oliver entered a phrase in his life where he could not dedicate any time for emulators anymore, and that's indeed frustrating when you have paid and have major bugs, I don't deny that. But please don't forget the initial service attitude, which is back now.

3) Olivier is actually so committed that he is currently rewriting from scratch the whole Saturn core emulation (which he suspects has vicious issues), trying it first on simpler machines than the 71B, like the 27S, before porting it to the more complex 71B.

I'm not trying to act as Olivier's lawyer, but as he's more a doer than a talker (he talks about what he has actually done rather than what he intends to do), I thought that someone had to stand up for him, as I know he is not at all the dishonest person he is sometimes portrayed. He is a nice person and a prime contributor to this community, who also happen to be a human being with a life...

Hope this helps to bring the tension down.

Best regards,

Vincent

[EdS2]

(06-11-2021 09:24 AM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  I have been encouraging Olivier a lot, patiently and kindly, asking politely for bug corrections and new features, as well as compatibility corrections for my Android 9, and that's a much more efficient way to gets things done..

Thanks for doing this. The world is much better when we can treat our fellow humans with compassion. The calculators are the machines: the people are human. I know that some people find it hard to be kind, but I wish they would at least learn to be quiet: others, more skilled in the art, can do the work.

It's normal to feel anger and frustration, but expressing it is often counterproductive. I know I don't always manage to keep myself in check, but it's always worth trying.

[johanw]

(06-12-2021 06:45 AM)Vincent Weber Wrote:  Ok, after that, Oliver entered a phrase in his life where he could not dedicate any time for emulators anymore,

I can certainly understand that. I also have an Android app (it's free but I get service requests anyway) but when I got covid and was recovering, and then my partner died of covid, it didn't have much priority for me for a while. I had to tell people that new features were not an option for a while.

[rprosperi]

@Vincent

Thanks for the explanatory comments. Olivier is lucky to have a good friend like you to insulate him from the great unwashed masses of humanity (us) and translate and explain on his behalf, while I and others appreciate you taking the time and effort to do this for the community.

Regarding go71b and go27s, it seems both are in the queue, so I'm happy to wait for these new versions.

In the past I saw Olivier had also released go75c, but I held back from purchasing as this was during the 'dark' period and wasn't sure about more purchases when there seemed to be no chance of support. Could you inquire if this app will also get the upgrade treatment? Though no doubt derived from his hpseries80 emulator, the 75 is not a very loved loved machine, so I expect its demand/popularity to be low, so possibly not worth the effort.

Thanks again for your assistance and help for the community.

[Didier Lachieze]

Thanks Vincent for speaking for Olivier, I've always appreciated his work and I enjoy using his emulators despite the problems happening from time to time which are as you explained mostly due to the Android changes.

So new releases is good news for me. But I'm someone who always look on the bright side of life