Leif:
Linrad does not have a single piece of text on the screen to explain what the various numbers mean. Can you name another program that has absolutely no text to explain what all the numbers are? You should not need user feedback to tell you that labels are needed, nor to tell you that the user community has found Linrad extremely difficult to use. I can't say that your newcomer page in any way resembles a manual. Where does this page tell me what the numbers mean on the screen? Where does it explain how to make all the correct choices for setup? I view Linrad as a wonderful engineering effort, but almost a zero as a useful program. From what I hear from others in the HF / MF / LF world (hams and DXers), that is unfortunately a unanimous opinion. It's a conclusion I did not want to make, because I would love to be able to take advantage of some wonderful Linrad functions. Linrad reminds me of programs I have written myself for engineering tasks. I think they work well and do some nice technical things, but their operation and functionality is clear only to me as the algorithm author and the software author. The game changes totally when the program must be used by others. Chuck To: [email protected] From: [email protected] Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2009 21:13:24 +0200 Subject: [soft_radio] Re: Wish List for SDR software Hello Chuck, > I think the simple answer to why few people are using > Linrad with Perseus, SDR-IQ, Softrock, etc. is because the > operation of the program is so difficult. That is an interesting statement, but it does not convey any information at all to me. Surely it is difficult to get the optimum performance for specialized tasks, but operating as a normal receiver should not be difficult at all. The new option "newcomer mode" will disable a lot of things and make setup trivial (I believe.) > Of the people I know who have tried Linrad (including myself), > everyone has given up. Hmmm, and none of you have put forward a signle question as far as I know. > Why? Mostly because there is not a single piece of text > anywhere on the screen that explains a function. Well, there is a lot of text that describes every function. There is not room for all of it simultaneously on screen so you have to put the mouse on the function and press F1. (F1 on black screen will show where all the functions are.) > The lack of any sort of manual is a hindrance. Hmmm, I am afraid I have written far too much about various aspects of operating Linrad. The "manual" is here: http://www.sm5bsz.com/linuxdsp/usage/newco/newcomer.htm By following the links you would find pages that treat general aspects and on them links pages with more specialized information. To use Linrad to do everything you can do with a normal SDR, the information on the newcomer page should be sufficient (In combination with the F1 help) It is most likely that there are still trivial obstacles that I could change if someone made me aware of it. > The words used in the setup function often do not help > people understand what entries are needed. You would make me happy by giving me an example. If a couple of people told me what the first confusing wording is in the setup function(s) I would try to rephrase it or perhaps write a new section in the "manual". > I appreciate the technical knowledge that lies behind Linrad. > What Linrad needs is a greatly improved operator interface. And that needs some kind of feedback. I honestly do not understand where the problem is. Surely Linrad is mure user-friendly today than it was a couple of years ago, and that is because of the feedbak I have received. It happens once or twice a year only and that is the explanation why improvement is so slow. 73 Leif / SM5BSZ
