I too installed Linrad about 1.5 years ago. It took me less than one hour to come to the conclusion that Linrad was going to require a lot of time to learn even the basic functions ... I don't have enough years left in my life to spend most of it digging out bit by bit little bits of useful information... I looked upon the screen , and had no clue what mode the program was in or even what modes were available! I could see some unconnected dots jumping around ... it would have been nice to have an obvious button to push to connect the dots and know "oh yes" this is a spectrum display and I'm looking at random noise ... I did "click" some areas that seemed to want to be clicked and some number would change, had no idea what the number meant and some cases didn't have an obvious way to get back to the original number ... I removed Linrad and all traces of it ... I didn't have enough VALUABLE time to dedicate to it!!! I installed WinRad ... and within minutes had a good understanding of what I was seeing and I felt comfortable using it ... I started computer programming in the mid 1980's DOS was king and assembly language was the fastest and best programming language to use. I now use Windows 98 thru XP ... I know what a good user interface is and looks like ... DOS and UNIX are not a good user interface. In DOS I had to build that user interface for each application. My rule was if I spend one day of programming to save the user one minute of time, my one day was well spent. Note: You can't make a program TOO easy to use ... you can't provide TOO much OBVIOUS help. Leif, if you have 100000 users of Linrad and they all have to spend MANY HOURS or MONTHS to learn how to use it, just think of what additional things could have achieved if those hours were NOT spent learning an difficult program/operating system ... If YOU spend one man year and improve the user interface to be as easy to learn as say WinRad ... it would an HUGE savings of VALUABLE time ... I will step off my soap box now ... Jim KI6MZ
Leif Asbrink wrote: > 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 > > > > ------------------------------------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > >
