A manual suggestion

[walter b]

How about this:

You can get a personalized WP 34S pdf manual allowing for electronic search and containing hyperlinks. Beyond that, it will be almost equal to the printed v3.3 edition available at CreateSpace except it will not contain App. J (history); most photographs will be b/w; and there will be some means implemented to encourage you keeping it as your personal electronic file. Of course, everything can be hacked today (alas, not only by the NSA or Her Majesty's Secret Service) but I count on your honesty.

The price would be 9 US$ per manual file. I will collect the money and transfer it 100% to our WP 34S project donation box. In return you'd receive your personal file of 17 MB / 340 pages in your personal mailbox.

What do you think?

d:-)

P.S.: I'm not saying this will be ready today. Right now, we've got a minor discussion about what's going on on the 8-level stack when "advanced commands" like f'(x), SLV, etc. are executed. I want to have this settled before distributing pdfs.

[Gerald H]

Good idea - your agents at createspace seem to ignore my complaint, an effective method of discouraging further correspondence.

[Bit]

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  [...] there will be some means implemented to encourage you keeping it as your personal electronic file.

Would that means be a watermark or something similar, or some proprietary encryption that'd prevent Linux users from opening the document with Evince/Atril or KPDF?

[BarryMead]

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  How about this:

You can get a personalized WP 34S pdf manual allowing for electronic search and containing hyperlinks. Beyond that, it will be almost equal to the printed v3.3 edition available at CreateSpace except it will not contain App. J (history); most photographs will be b/w; and there will be some means implemented to encourage you keeping it as your personal electronic file. Of course, everything can be hacked today (alas, not only by the NSA or Her Majesty's Secret Service) but I count on your honesty.

The price would be 9 US$ per manual file. I will collect the money and transfer it 100% to our WP 34S project donation box. In return you'd receive your personal file of 17 MB / 340 pages in your personal mailbox.

What do you think?

d:-)

P.S.: I'm not saying this will be ready today. Right now, we've got a minor discussion about what's going on on the 8-level stack when "advanced commands" like f'(x), SLV, etc. are executed. I want to have this settled before distributing pdfs.

If I can view/search the manual from my Debian Wheezy Linux system, then I would definitely pay the $9.00 for a quicker access manual. But if it WON'T work on my Linux system, then it's of no value to me. Can anyone confirm that the Linux PDF utilities will be able to view/search through the locked PDF?

[rprosperi]

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  How about this:

You can get a personalized WP 34S pdf manual allowing for electronic search and containing hyperlinks. Beyond that, it will be almost equal to the printed v3.3 edition available at CreateSpace except it will not contain App. J (history); most photographs will be b/w; and there will be some means implemented to encourage you keeping it as your personal electronic file. Of course, everything can be hacked today (alas, not only by the NSA or Her Majesty's Secret Service) but I count on your honesty.

The price would be 9 US$ per manual file...

I think this is a reasonable compromise, thank you Walter for being open to change, something many of us here struggle with. The changes you propose are all reasonable IMHO for the likely usage of a PDF version (core reference info, portability, seaching). Gotta make sure I can access it on my Android phone!

(02-23-2015 05:59 PM)BarryMead Wrote:  If I can view/search the manual from my Debian Wheezy Linux system, then I would definitely pay the $9.00 for a quicker access manual. But if it WON'T work on my Linux system, then it's of no value to me. Can anyone confirm that the Linux PDF utilities will be able to view/search through the locked PDF?

The Acrobat format has long supported locked documents (and locked features, such as not allowing Printing, etc.) so if the Linux utilities properly support the full PDF spec, it should not be an issue.

That said, Walter I suggest 2 things :

1. Use genuine Adobe Acrobat to make your customized files, and
2. Make some sample files (any content, but of similar complexity) with all the locked features you plan to include and post them here for users to "test drive" with the PDF reader of choice so we know what does / doesn't really work ahead of the true manual work.

[MarkHaysHarris777]

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  How about this:

You can get a personalized WP 34S pdf manual allowing for electronic search and containing hyperlinks. Beyond that, it will be almost equal to the printed v3.3 edition available at CreateSpace except it will not contain App. J (history);

. . .

What do you think?

... perfect compromise, Walter ( I like it )


marcus

[anetzer]

(02-23-2015 11:46 PM)MarkHaysHarris777 Wrote:  like it

+1!

[John Galt]

Walter, I will definitely purchase the PDF, but I ask a favor of you: if I can't read it on a Mac, I'll let you know what the problem is hoping that you will be able to fix it and provide an updated copy.

The reason for asking is that the HP 50g user's guide has problems rendering images on OS X's Preview (the Mac's all-purpose document reader). Images appear as empty rectangles. The effect of that problem is that Mac users are left with incomplete documentation for that calculator, since the 50g manual relies heavily on images of the display. It's one reason I purchased dizzy's AUR, which I am still looking forward to receiving.

It boggles my mind that HP does not offer a printed manual for the 50g, at any price. Or for that matter, the 35S. Add that to the long list of frustrations with new and improved HP. Their documentation peaked with the HP 41CX's wonderfully detailed manuals, maybe the 48 SX's spiral bound one, but your manual is even better. Assuming you'll be developing its documentation, I'm looking forward to a WP 43S manual almost as much as the calculator itself.

I do hope it will have an index though :-)

Adobe Acrobat should render a compatible PDF. I think the problem with the HP 50g manual lies with Apple, and I've informed them about it, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for them to fix it.

[walter b]

Just for clarification: the pdf ...

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  ... will be almost equal to the printed v3.3 edition available at CreateSpace except it will not contain App. J (history); most photographs will be b/w ...

(emphasis added)

This means the manual will be in colour (text & graphics) except most photographs. I know, marketing wasn't invented on this side of the pond

d:-)

[Thomas_Sch]

Hello Walter,

please make sure, that the PDF will be readable with the Sumatra-PDF-Reader. (http://sumatrapdfreader.org/, It's free and much better than adobe reader).

Many thanks in advance!
Thomas

[Paul Dale]

I have verified older manual PDFs with Linux and Mac Preview. They worked and Walter fixed some problems based on these already. I'd suggest trying the existing manual from SourceForge and seeing if that works. If it doesn't, let Walter know.

I rather suspect he'll use the same process to make any new manual.

- Pauli

[Thomas_Sch]

(02-24-2015 07:55 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  I'd suggest trying the existing manual from SourceForge and seeing if that works.
- Pauli

Reading the manuals from SourceForge and many others is fine.
What makes me thinking about this is

(02-23-2015 03:42 PM)walter b Wrote:  How about this:
... and there will be some means implemented to encourage you keeping it as your personal electronic file. ..

It depends on what specific measures Walter will use, whether the result will also be readable in Non-Windows and/or Non-Adobe readers.

Otherwise +1 from my side.

[John Galt]

(02-24-2015 07:55 AM)Paul Dale Wrote:  I'd suggest trying the existing manual from SourceForge and seeing if that works.

I did, and yes Preview renders it perfectly. Thanks Paul!

[Jlouis]

I'll buy it when it's available.

Thanks in advance.

[Thomas_Sch]

(02-24-2015 07:23 PM)Jlouis Wrote:  I'll buy it when it's available.

Thanks in advance.

+1 !!
Thomas

[Didier Lachieze]

(02-24-2015 07:23 PM)Jlouis Wrote:  I'll buy it when it's available.

Me too.

[Sylvain Cote]

(02-24-2015 07:23 PM)Jlouis Wrote:  I'll buy it when it's available.

Thanks in advance.

I will too.

(02-23-2015 05:13 PM)Bit Wrote:  Would that means be a watermark or something similar, or some proprietary encryption that'd prevent Linux users from opening the document with Evince/Atril or KPDF?

I suggest that you create and publish a 5 pages sample protected/encrypted document for the OSX/Linux/BSD/Unix users.
This will allow those users to try for themselves if they can read your final document.

Sylvain

[walter b]

(04-09-2015 11:10 AM)Sylvain Cote Wrote:  I suggest that you create and publish a 5 pages sample protected/encrypted document for the OSX/Linux/BSD/Unix users.
This will allow those users to try for themselves if they can read your final document.

Good idea. What kind of problems do you expect?

d:-)

[walter b]

Just try the Manual Calculation Guide published here. Any difficulties reading it? With whatever OS you have?

d:-)

[Terje Vallestad]

(04-09-2015 08:35 PM)walter b Wrote:  Any difficulties reading it? With whatever OS you have?

Works fine on IOS 8.3, renders nicely and bookmarks works well
Content looks as good as the manual also.
Thank you very much!

Cheers, Terje