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Disappointments continue.
09-17-2014, 03:56 PM
Post: #1
Disappointments continue.
When I first commented on using my HP Prime for the very first time, I made a statement like:

"The HP Prime is clearly a work in progress...."

Appears that is more true than I feared.

I have had 3 solid lockups now under 3 different occasions. Apparently connected with the touch screen; leave HP Prime's screen alone, and its less likely to "lockup solid." Each time requiring that a paperclip be put into tiny hole in back of HP PRIME!
Even happened while waiting in a doctors office and had to ask a receptionist for a paperclip, she asked why, "My HP PRIME calculator locks up, its brand new." and I held it up for her to see.

Everyday use issues:
I do not like having to take enormous number of keystrokes to enter data, either into
manual calculations, or when running a program!

Handling of both Sexadecimal values for Latitude and Longitude, as is doing a list of Unit Conversions, is an absolute deeply royal pain in the arse! And I am being polite to put it mildly!

SOMETHING MUST be done to make handling Degs/Min/Sec sexadecimal entry easier!
DD/MM/SS, and DD/MM.mmmm are used by me for a variety of situations.
I am shocked that modern calculators today do not make entering such information easier, converting to decimal formats easier!

Only CASIO appears to have a "shortcut" that allows real-valued MINUTES; most other calculators apparently have strict parsing rules about MINUTES being a mixed-value. And CASIO allows D/M/S conversion during INPUT statements!

Where UNIT CONVERSIONS are concerned:
Wouldn't it be appropriate to LEAVE the UNITS MENU ON THE SCREEN while
performing these calculations!

I never did understand this blind idiotic need to CLEAR the Units menu out, once any SINGLE OPTION? is chosen from it.

GO INTO UNITS, select Convert() {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}
GO INTO UNITS, to select a Unit {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}
GO INTO UNITS, to select another Unit {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}

and, then, as if that tedium is not enough to slow you down,
you have not only to enter the numerical values of course,
but also "," and "_", and get them placed propertly.
(point being use of SHIFT and/or ALPHA keys are also thrown in).

Add to that other things like (^2) or actual arithmetic expressions, and it literally
does quickly become a nightmare; since you may have to EDIT, and RE-EDIT, until you get everything where it should be to get the Conversion(), or whatever.
And WATCH UNITS Menu CLOSE_ITSELF each and every single time!

Obviously, this is unacceptable in TODAYS LOGICAL EFFICIENT "lets do this quickly, but accurately" mind-set!!

There are dozens of other such examples with HP PRIME calculator that is just pure tedium, and frankly TORTURE to have to go through! (and yes CASIO also)

Why is not someone sitting down with the ACTUAL PEOPLE who ACTUALLY USE calculators to ACTUALLY DETERMINE what tasks are being done, what can be done to ASSIST, at the very least, make each of these tasks LESS OF A BURDEN!

I mean, it would be far easier and FAR_LESS_TIME_CONSUMING to GRAB MY CASIO to do these things, and use an Almanac from my bookshelf, then it would be to attempt to use todays calculators!
(and/or of course perhaps using a web browser and search engine!)

For everything that *is* impressive about HP PRIME,
it still possesses ALL of those things from PREVIOUS MODELS that frankly are still holding people back! And has does NOTHING to address MODERN NEEDS of entry of SEXADECIMAL, and Units Conversions, or frankly, a proper supply of CONSTANTS!

Where do we sit down with HP Calculator Division and start to get them to take Calculators serious in the year of 2014! I expected to be taken OUT OF the DARK AGES! Yes, fine, SOME THINGS are terrific and cool, uP speed, and full color screen, and "touch screen"--although that clearly has lock-up issues.... so no yet -- I can not be impressed just yet. Getting there said the snail.

Emails welcomed.
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09-17-2014, 06:21 PM (This post was last modified: 09-17-2014 06:30 PM by Thomas_Sch.)
Post: #2
RE: Disappointments continue.
What about splitting your post into specific points of "bugs & suggestions", and then matching / expanding / joining them to http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2eKfifdjarx ?
In my opinion this is a fine location for sorting, voting, .. , Erwin (eried) created for the prime users and HP ;-)

Here you will get opinions, agreement, other opinions, .. but this will not necessarily lead to the desred development of the prime.

Also a more specific subject would be helpful.
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09-17-2014, 06:51 PM (This post was last modified: 09-17-2014 06:52 PM by Tugdual.)
Post: #3
RE: Disappointments continue.
(09-17-2014 03:56 PM)Richard Wagner Wrote:  When I first commented on using my HP Prime for the very first time, I made a statement like:

"The HP Prime is clearly a work in progress...."

Appears that is more true than I feared.

I have had 3 solid lockups now under 3 different occasions. Apparently connected with the touch screen; leave HP Prime's screen alone, and its less likely to "lockup solid." Each time requiring that a paperclip be put into tiny hole in back of HP PRIME!
Even happened while waiting in a doctors office and had to ask a receptionist for a paperclip, she asked why, "My HP PRIME calculator locks up, its brand new." and I held it up for her to see.

Everyday use issues:
I do not like having to take enormous number of keystrokes to enter data, either into
manual calculations, or when running a program!

Handling of both Sexadecimal values for Latitude and Longitude, as is doing a list of Unit Conversions, is an absolute deeply royal pain in the arse! And I am being polite to put it mildly!

SOMETHING MUST be done to make handling Degs/Min/Sec sexadecimal entry easier!
DD/MM/SS, and DD/MM.mmmm are used by me for a variety of situations.
I am shocked that modern calculators today do not make entering such information easier, converting to decimal formats easier!

Only CASIO appears to have a "shortcut" that allows real-valued MINUTES; most other calculators apparently have strict parsing rules about MINUTES being a mixed-value. And CASIO allows D/M/S conversion during INPUT statements!

Where UNIT CONVERSIONS are concerned:
Wouldn't it be appropriate to LEAVE the UNITS MENU ON THE SCREEN while
performing these calculations!

I never did understand this blind idiotic need to CLEAR the Units menu out, once any SINGLE OPTION? is chosen from it.

GO INTO UNITS, select Convert() {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}
GO INTO UNITS, to select a Unit {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}
GO INTO UNITS, to select another Unit {watch UNITS menu totally vanish!}

and, then, as if that tedium is not enough to slow you down,
you have not only to enter the numerical values of course,
but also "," and "_", and get them placed propertly.
(point being use of SHIFT and/or ALPHA keys are also thrown in).

Add to that other things like (^2) or actual arithmetic expressions, and it literally
does quickly become a nightmare; since you may have to EDIT, and RE-EDIT, until you get everything where it should be to get the Conversion(), or whatever.
And WATCH UNITS Menu CLOSE_ITSELF each and every single time!

Obviously, this is unacceptable in TODAYS LOGICAL EFFICIENT "lets do this quickly, but accurately" mind-set!!

There are dozens of other such examples with HP PRIME calculator that is just pure tedium, and frankly TORTURE to have to go through! (and yes CASIO also)

Why is not someone sitting down with the ACTUAL PEOPLE who ACTUALLY USE calculators to ACTUALLY DETERMINE what tasks are being done, what can be done to ASSIST, at the very least, make each of these tasks LESS OF A BURDEN!

I mean, it would be far easier and FAR_LESS_TIME_CONSUMING to GRAB MY CASIO to do these things, and use an Almanac from my bookshelf, then it would be to attempt to use todays calculators!
(and/or of course perhaps using a web browser and search engine!)

For everything that *is* impressive about HP PRIME,
it still possesses ALL of those things from PREVIOUS MODELS that frankly are still holding people back! And has does NOTHING to address MODERN NEEDS of entry of SEXADECIMAL, and Units Conversions, or frankly, a proper supply of CONSTANTS!

Where do we sit down with HP Calculator Division and start to get them to take Calculators serious in the year of 2014! I expected to be taken OUT OF the DARK AGES! Yes, fine, SOME THINGS are terrific and cool, uP speed, and full color screen, and "touch screen"--although that clearly has lock-up issues.... so no yet -- I can not be impressed just yet. Getting there said the snail.

Emails welcomed.
You reiterated what I kept saying for a year. Hp is totally aware of this, I even received a very good clue to avoid the issue: instead of tapping the screen to scroll using inertia, just stick your finger on it and release only when finished. This is probably not the only freeze reason but it helped a lot to avoid crashes. I no longer have a prime, I gave up. I actually regret this experience, coming from the old 15c I had HP in very high consideration. Today I feel like i've lost a childhood idol.
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09-18-2014, 01:51 AM
Post: #4
RE: Disappointments continue.
It would be a big help if they provided user/programming access to the soft keys so you could set unused ones in apps and in general. I haven't looked into app programming but you could probably write an app with all your most common conversions as a workaround but yeah we shouldn't have to, but for me for relearning math it's still seems a very good calc for that, I could always dig out the old 49g I have somewhere for conversions if I had a lot of them(personally I'm usually on the net when I need conversions so I just use a search engine for that).
I do think the prime shows a lot of promise and I hope HP takes these criticisms to heart and continues to improve it. A lot of the complaints I've seen are not just applicable to old timers--they would seem as awkward to first time HP users also.
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