Playing Favorites

[John Garza (3665)]

What are the factors that determine a person's favorite machine?
Some people are collectors, others users, others a mix. Some users use them heavily as intended, others find simple tasks just to have a little pleasure in using them.

I can think of:

C = collectibility
U = usability
Q = quality
S = sentimentality
T = task complexity

Are there more?

For me I think I am:

C 2
U 6
Q 5
S 8
T 3

For me this means:

I prefer machines that have some historical personal context, like a machine I used in college.
Usability and quality are important and I have mostly simple tasks with some light programming. Meaning I'd pick a 67 over a 41C.
Not very interested in collectibility; usability is more important, so I would choose a 35 V4 with double injection molded keys over a red dot.

Has anyone else tried to break down why we like the machines we do?

-John

[9100B/35/45/55/80/70/65/67/67T/97/97S/91/92/21/22/27/25C/29C/19C/10/
31E/32E/33C/34C/37E/38C/41CX/71B/28S/19BII/12C/15C/33S/35S/32SII/
48GX/50G/Prime/DM42]

[EdS2]

Nice list!

I think there might also be
P = preference

So for example one person might be very keen on financial machines, another might have little interest in RPL machines. And then, within the classes of machines they do prefer, the other factors come into play.

Edit: I suppose one might express this combination of positive and negative attitude to the featureset as
F = features

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello1

Interesting. Just for clarification: The scale goes from 1 to 10 with 10 being the highest score?

(06-13-2023 06:47 AM)EdS2 Wrote:  I think there might also be
P = preference

The problem with "P" is, that there are many ramifications: e.g. Display type (luminous - LED/VFD/Gas discharge, LCD - segments/dot matrix/graphic/backlit/colour graphic/...), menus vs. multiple shift keys, programming "language" (keystroke/RPL/BASIC/FORTH/Python/...), size and orientation ("form factor"), connectivity and expandibility, financial or scientific, and so on.

For me personally, "P" with its many subcategries outweighs C U Q S and T ...

Regards
Max