The changing thickness of manuals

[Siegfried]

(12-07-2022 06:52 PM)Maximilian Hohmann Wrote:  Maybe. But on the other hand, the need for documentation is not as big as it used to be. Since many years, Apple does not supply any (visible) documentation with their products (computers, phones, tablets) because they spend a lot of money to create an intuitive user interface.

I don't think I have either, except for some tips in magazines, but I strongly suspect that I don't use half of the functions that Apple added to iOS and MacOS since I joined at iOS4 and Snow Leopard. They sometimes offer popups or tutorials but they usually come up when I have something else to do and probably my memory isn't as good as it used to be so i probably forget most of those tips and stuff it shows me (or I'm wired to learn in a different way).

I like to thumb through old spiral-bound calculator manuals and marvel at how small the manuals for some earlier models (like a newly acquired HP55 but also the HP67) are while later models like the HP29C have markedly larger ones. I still regret throwing away my HP15C manual after having forgotten the calculator at work and it having disappeared. I have a whole shelf full of them but still find them more enjoyable than PDFs (although I'm thankful they exist as buying missing manuals is just too expensive these days when repro manuals are sold for more than real ones went for a year or two ago.)

I don't do margin notes myself but also think they add "flair" to used manuals. My favourite is a set of HP41CX manuals with a nice, thick homemade paper cover with titles typed on a manual typewriter.