Android documentation - where?

[Richard Owlett]

I just purchased a Lenovo 7" Tablet with Android 4.0 .
There is essentially no documentation in the package.
I found
http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideatab_a2107a_ug/data/EN/index.html
which is minimally sufficient as a starting point. I bought
the version WITHOUT cell network connectivity as what I
really wanted was a PDA from yesteryear.

Suggestions of where to start reading?
TIA

[Fredrik Jonson]

Richard Owlett wrote:

> I just purchased a Lenovo 7" Tablet with Android 4.0. There is essentially
> no documentation in the package. Suggestions of where to start reading?

I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any documentation
to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.

And if that isn't your - or anyone else's - experience, I'd be very interested
to hear about it. I develop Android apps for a living, so user experiences are
always interesting.

To get you started: What ever gave you the idea that you needed to read
documentation before using your Android device? ;)

Now, if you have some specific question in mind, that you cant find an answer
to, just ask in this group.

Maybe Google's android help also could assist you with basic stuff?

https://support.google.com/android/

If you really want to get technical, and learn the principles of how Android
and Android apps should work, I'd suggest that you browse the Android Design
documentation. It is intended for developers, but I think it might be
interesting to end users too.

https://developer.android.com/design/

--
Fredrik Jonson

[tlvp]

On 16 Mar 2013 14:36:09 GMT, Fredrik Jonson wrote:

> ... you shouldn't need to read any documentation

> to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.
>
> And if that isn't your - or anyone else's - experience, I'd be very interested
> to hear about it.

'Tain't mine, by a long shot. My jaw dropped the first time I read about
swiping in diagonally from a corner of the screen, for example. Or again, I
have no idea under which circumstances rotating the device between portrait
and landscape will cause what's currently being displayed to change its
orientation, and under which it won't. Or how to get the "Select All"
option to turn up when hoping to start a copy/paste operation -- sometimes
it does, sometimes only two selector icons appear, that I must drag to the
start and end points of my intended selection, and when one of those is
off-screen ... well, I can't get there from where I am.

Real menus, Palm Computing -style, would be a great help, too :-) .

Also, can you help with my earlier query, of 3/14/2013 12:33:04 PM ? --

> Q.: how 2 eliminate Android's "reject with message" option? (tlvp)

Should be a triviality to fix, right? HTH. Cheers, -- tlvp
--
Avant de repondre, jeter la poubelle, SVP.

[Andy Burns]

Richard Owlett wrote:

> I just purchased a Lenovo 7" Tablet with Android 4.0 .
> There is essentially no documentation in the package.

You could try the Nexus7 handbook

http://nexus7manual.com/

but you'd have to bear in mind your Lenovo is 4.0 and the N7 book was
originally written for 4.1 (and I think is now updated for 4.2)

[Mike Coon]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>
> I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any
> documentation to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.
>
> And if that isn't your - or anyone else's - experience, I'd be very
> interested to hear about it. I develop Android apps for a living, so
> user experiences are always interesting.
>
> To get you started: What ever gave you the idea that you needed to
> read documentation before using your Android device? ;)
>
> Now, if you have some specific question in mind, that you cant find
> an answer to, just ask in this group.
>
> Maybe Google's android help also could assist you with basic stuff?
>
> https://support.google.com/android/
>
> If you really want to get technical, and learn the principles of how
> Android and Android apps should work, I'd suggest that you browse the
> Android Design documentation. It is intended for developers, but I
> think it might be interesting to end users too.
>
> https://developer.android.com/design/

I will browse that stuff since I am unimpressed with my first device in the
few months I've had it and numerous downloaded apps.How "Android apps should
work"... I wondered whether there was a "standard look-and-feel" that
everyone ignored, or none at all. For instance it seems OK to ignore the
"menu" button and there are numerous interpretations of what to do, if
anything, with presses of the "back" button.

Mike.
--
If reply address is Mike@@mjcoon.+.com (invalid), remove spurious "@"
and substitute "plus" for +.

[Andy Burns]

Mike Coon wrote:

> I wondered whether there was a "standard look-and-feel" that
> everyone ignored, or none at all. For instance it seems OK to ignore the
> "menu" button

4.x devices aren't expected to have a "menu" button, only "back", "home"
and "recent" buttons. The vertical "..." will appear on apps that
haven't been updated for devices without menu buttons.

> and there are numerous interpretations of what to do, if
> anything, with presses of the "back" button.

Unfortunately that is true, "back" button handling can be horribly
inconsistent.

[Richard Owlett]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>
>> I just purchased a Lenovo 7" Tablet with Android 4.0. There is essentially
>> no documentation in the package. Suggestions of where to start reading?
>
> I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any documentation
> to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.

ROFL! Now that I've picked myself off the floor, maybe I can
give a useful reply.
I'm from a different generation - think vacuum tubes,
Hollerith, and 026's.

The first problem I had was it *APPARENTLY* would not turn
on. The included
documentation showed the location of the on/off switch. But
NOWHERE mentioned
the requirement to press AND HOLD to turn off. All my Lenovo
machines (desktop
and 2 laptops) power on with a momentary press. Turn off
with the switch (instead
of via the OS) requires "press and hold".


The "tap around and explore" methodology might be
appropriate for a game device
or for someone who had no idea of what a computer could be
used for. However,
I had some specific tasks in mind. There appears to be any
categorized listing of what's
available. The cutesy names popular today aren't helpful.

Then we get to the default apps displayed on initial
powerup. Two are obvious - Lenovo
app shop and Weather. The next is simply labeled media. It
is an analog of a directory
with three apps. One is named obtusely Zino which gives no
hint of it's function until opening.
Then there is a calendar app of some sort. Apparently good
only for discovering which day
of the week a date falls on. The last is a post-it type app
with no hint of what it's capabilities are.

>
> And if that isn't your - or anyone else's - experience, I'd be very interested
> to hear about it. I develop Android apps for a living, so user experiences are
> always interesting.
>
> To get you started: What ever gave you the idea that you needed to read
> documentation before using your Android device? ;)

I bought it as a tool not a toy. How many years will I doing
things the hard why
when IF THERE WAS DOCUMENTATION I could be being productive.

Case in point. I want to make notes - I could burrow down
thru "Documents
To Go" and get to create a new MS Word document. That should
be a single
touch on my opening screen.

>
> Now, if you have some specific question in mind, that you cant find an answer
> to, just ask in this group.
>
> Maybe Google's android help also could assist you with basic stuff?
>
> https://support.google.com/android/
>
> If you really want to get technical, and learn the principles of how Android
> and Android apps should work, I'd suggest that you browse the Android Design
> documentation. It is intended for developers, but I think it might be
> interesting to end users too.
>
> https://developer.android.com/design/
>

I'll take a look, thanks.

[Richard Owlett]

It will do fine for orienting me to the mindset. It will
also give me a good idea of what should be present and what
might not be. We fossils are adaptable.

[Ivan D. Reid]

On Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:18:31 -0500, Richard Owlett <row...@pcnetinc.com>
wrote in <w8idneYVt7DGBtnM...@supernews.com>:
> We fossils are adaptable.

Ain't dat de troof! I'm by far the oldest in my research group,
if not terribly senior (by choice). I don't know all the gestures on my
Nexus 7 but I pick them up here and there (in reviews, most crucially).
The other day a Senior Lecturer (who was once mistaken for my daughter)
asked me how to expand the browser display on her Samsung(?) 7" tablet --
so I showed her the two-finger zoom gesture. The next day I was helping
her with another problem on her PC and I noticed she always reverted to
the mouse to change to a new input field on a form -- she'd never learnt
that a <tab> advanced to the next field...

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

[Mike Coon]

Ivan D. Reid wrote:
> The next day I was helping her with another problem on her PC and I
> noticed she always reverted to the mouse to change to a new input
> field on a form -- she'd never learnt that a <tab> advanced to the
> next field...

For years I thought it was preposterous that about the most basic tool in
Windows - Notepad - didn't have the standard keyboard short-cuts
Cntrl-c, -v, -o, -s. But then at last, maybe with Win NT, it did!

And I think hardly anyone whose shoulder I looked over used Cntrl-arrow keys
to move within text; they just use arrow keys as if playing a game... (Or,
of course, the mouse.)

Mike

[Whiskers]

<http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/lenovo_ideapad_a1-07_ug_v1.1_en_20120717.pdf>
or
<http://download.lenovo.com/UserFiles/UserGuide/en/User's%20guides%20and%20manuals/A1-07/A1-07_EN_%20HTML/EN%20No%20scroll/index.html>

Found both by clicking on "Installation and User Guide" from
<http://support.lenovo.com/en_GB/guides-and-manuals/default.page?selector=expand>.
Lenovo could certainly make them a lot easier to find. Why not a link from
the product's own page?

--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~

[tlvp]

On Sat, 16 Mar 2013 19:35:21 +0000, Whiskers wrote:

> ... Why not a link from

> the product's own page?

Indeed, why not a link from the product itself :-) ? -- tlvp

[Neil Gould]

Ivan D. Reid wrote:
> On Sat, 16 Mar 2013 11:18:31 -0500, Richard Owlett
> <row...@pcnetinc.com> wrote in
> <w8idneYVt7DGBtnM...@supernews.com>:
>> We fossils are adaptable.
>
> Ain't dat de troof!

[...]

> The next day I was helping her with another problem on her PC and I
> noticed she always reverted to the mouse to change to a new input
> field on a form -- she'd never learnt that a <tab> advanced to the
> next field...
>

The problem is, and relates to the OP's (and my) desire for documentation,
that what happens when you hit <tab> on a PC depends on how the app was
written. For the majority of apps, some adherence to a common practice (too
weak to call a "standard", though) regarding UI behavior made it possible to
use such shortcuts, but it falls short of being universal. My frustration
with Android apps is that there is even less of a common practice related to
UI behavior. It's like the early days of GUIs, where there was a struggle to
establish the behaviors of the UI, that ultimately were established by the
most prolific apps rather than the best functional ideas.

--
best regards,

Neil (another old fossil from the vacuum tube days)

[Jeff Layman]

I decided to get a tablet a month ago. It was really only meant to be a
backup device for browsing and the odd email if my laptop went down. So
rather than spend a fortune, I got a cheap Scroll Plus (Jelly Bean 4.1).

The lack of documentation was at first puzzling, and indeed there was
little of use on www.android.com, which is a bit surprising. But after
playing with it for a while, I soon realised that it wanted to run me,
rather than the other way round. AFAICT, Android is an OS designed for
minimal input (and knowledge) from the user, with choices strictly
limited. That seems to be confirmed by your last link. At
https://developer.android.com/design/get-started/principles.html it
states, under the "Simplify My Life" section:

"Keep it brief
Use short phrases with simple words. People are likely to skip sentences
if they're long.

Pictures are faster than words
Consider using pictures to explain ideas. They get people's attention
and can be much more efficient than words.

Decide for me but let me have the final say
Take your best guess and act rather than asking first. Too many choices
and decisions make people unhappy. Just in case you get it wrong, allow
for 'undo'."

--

Jeff

[Richard Owlett]

It's worse than you thought. The page you found doesn't
match the unit I bought as well as the one I had found using
a generic Google search. I can't get "Installation and User
Guide" to give anything other than what you found.

[Fredrik Jonson]

Mike Coon wrote:

> For instance it seems OK to ignore the "menu" button.

The menu button has visibility issues, or discoverability issues, and
fell out of style pretty quickly when developers found that the vast
majority of their app users never found the options in that menu.

Besides, if your app's actions easily can be displayed on screen, there
is no need to hide them in a menu.

> and there are numerous interpretations of what to do, if anything,
> with presses of the "back" button.

The expected behaviour is documented below. Many apps get it wrong, or
their developers haven't learnt the distinction between back and up yet.

https://developer.android.com/design/patterns/navigation.html

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Fredrik Jonson]

tlvp wrote:

> My jaw dropped the first time I read about swiping in diagonally from a
> corner of the screen, for example.

I've never had to swipe diagonally anywhere, except when I navigate in maps.
What task in which app makes you do that?

> Or again, I have no idea under which circumstances rotating the device
> between portrait and landscape will cause what's currently being
> displayed to change its orientation, and under which it won't.

That's because app developers can disable landscape rotation support in
the app. Implementing an app that rotates properly, without loosing state,
is a bit more work than if you don't, so some developers choose to not
bother supporting it. If it confuses you, most devices (all?) supports
disabling automatic screen rotation.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Fredrik Jonson]

In <ki4ggj$5ik$1...@speranza.aioe.org> Neil Gould wrote:

> The problem is, and relates to the OP's (and my) desire for
> documentation, that what happens when you hit <tab> on a PC depends on
> how the app was written. For the majority of apps, some adherence to a
> common practice (too weak to call a "standard", though) regarding UI
> behavior made it possible to use such shortcuts, but it falls short of
> being universal.

Yes, and that's still true for some applications in the desktop world.
Strange tab behavior seems especially common, in business apps, developed by
inexperienced developers. Give that developer a few years of experience and
the app will improve.

Now, how much experience does the average Android developer have of Android
and developing for touch interfaces?

> My frustration with Android apps is that there is even less of a common
> practice related to UI behavior.

Of course. The modern desktop has had some 25 years to refine and to remove
the usability warts. Android - and Iphone - introduced a new way of
interacting with your phone, now tablet, just 5 years ago. And most Android
developers have spent considerably less time than that developing apps for
the platform. Obviously there are usability problems that have not been
ironed out yet.

But that doesn't mean that you can't get around and do the basic stuff
without a manual. Naturally you'll find some kinks in apps that doesn't
follow known usability patterns - or where your expectations doesn't match
that of the app's behavior. And occasionally you'll find a overly clever
swipe shortcut. But my experience with people around me - children as well
as elders - learning Android is as easy as tapping around and watching what
happens.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Fredrik Jonson]

Richard Owlett wrote:

> Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>
> > I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any
> > documentation to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.
>
> ROFL! Now that I've picked myself off the floor, maybe I can give a
> useful reply.

I always enjoy making others laugh, so, You're welcome. :)

Thank's for your story, the one about the power button long press reminded
me that some things are only really obvious when you already know them.

> I bought it as a tool not a toy. How many years will I doing things the
> hard why when IF THERE WAS DOCUMENTATION I could be being productive.

Did you explore how you where going to use it as a tool before you bought
it? I mean, if you wanted a really good tool for text entry, maybe a
keyboardless tablet isn't the best choice?

> Case in point. I want to make notes - I could burrow down thru "Documents
> To Go" and get to create a new MS Word document. That should be a single
> touch on my opening screen.

AFAICT that app is primarily intended as a document viewer. I usually don't
use my tablet or phone for notes, but I suspect you can find a more suitable
note taking app than that.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Mike Coon]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
> Mike Coon wrote:
>
>> For instance it seems OK to ignore the "menu" button.
>
> The menu button has visibility issues, or discoverability issues, and
> fell out of style pretty quickly when developers found that the vast
> majority of their app users never found the options in that menu.
>
> Besides, if your app's actions easily can be displayed on screen,
> there is no need to hide them in a menu.

But the trick is "displayed"; e.g. swipe actions are not visible, so it is
useful to add them to menus as well.

And I'd like many more menus that included (or consisted of!) "Exit" rather
than having tp hunt for a way to tell the system I've had enough of that
app!

[Richard Owlett]

Found an apparently functional solution
1. ignore lenovo.com indexes and search functions
2. do Google search of form
www.google.com/search?q=a2107a+pdf+site:lenovo.com

[searches for any pdf document concerning Model A2107A on
Lenovo's site]
[omitting "+pdf" gets some interesting discussions from the
user forum(s)]

[tlvp]

On 18 Mar 2013 19:11:13 GMT, Fredrik Jonson wrote:

> tlvp wrote:
>
>> My jaw dropped the first time I read about swiping in diagonally from a
>> corner of the screen, for example.
>
> I've never had to swipe diagonally anywhere, except when I navigate in maps.
> What task in which app makes you do that?

Now and again bringing up a keyboard requires that (from SW NE-wards), as
it does also with BlackBerry's PlayBook; or from NE SW-wards, occasionally,
to display options other than those brought up by a straight down-swipe
(again, the BB PlayBook relies far more heavily on that).

>> Or again, I have no idea under which circumstances rotating the device
>> between portrait and landscape will cause what's currently being
>> displayed to change its orientation, and under which it won't.
>
> That's because app developers can disable landscape rotation support in
> the app. Implementing an app that rotates properly, without loosing state,
> is a bit more work than if you don't, so some developers choose to not
> bother supporting it. If it confuses you, most devices (all?) supports
> disabling automatic screen rotation.

It's not the automatic screen rotation I'd like to disable -- I *depend* on
that, and would like to disable the developers whose apps have it disabled.

[Fredrik Jonson]

In <AKCdnWxpquiX49rM...@brightview.co.uk> Mike Coon wrote:

> And I'd like many more menus that included (or consisted of!) "Exit"

> rather than having to hunt for a way to tell the system I've had enough
> of that app!

There is not exit in the app menu because you shouldn't care about
application state. As soon as you change to a new task, by going to the home
screen and tapping another app icon, the current app is notified and placed
in the background. If the device needs the memory helt by that app the OS
will automatically stop the app in the background and reclaim the memory.

And this isn't us app developers being lazy, there actually isn't a api in
Android to exit the app entirely.

If you really don't trust an app, or it doesn't behave well you can stop it
by opening the recent apps list from the system bar and swipe the app to the
side to terminate it immediately. But normally you simply shouldn't have to.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Fredrik Jonson]

tlvp wrote:
> On 18 Mar 2013 19:11:13 GMT, Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>
> > I've never had to swipe diagonally anywhere, except when I navigate in
> > maps. What task in which app makes you do that?
>
> Now and again bringing up a keyboard requires that (from SW NE-wards), as
> it does also with BlackBerry's PlayBook; or from NE SW-wards,
> occasionally, to display options other than those brought up by a
> straight down-swipe (again, the BB PlayBook relies far more heavily on
> that).

Ah, but now you're talking blackberry, not Android. Event though the BB Z10
and the Playbook does run Android apps almost natively, it also is running
it in another operating system, QNX. Those diagonal swipes are probably used
because they do not interfere with the expectations of the Android apps it
houses. It is not a thing that Android app developers have put there to
annoy you. :)

> It's not the automatic screen rotation I'd like to disable -- I *depend*
> on that, and would like to disable the developers whose apps have it
> disabled.

Hear hear!

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Mike Coon]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
> If you really don't trust an app, or it doesn't behave well you can
> stop it by opening the recent apps list from the system bar and swipe
> the app to the side to terminate it immediately. But normally you
> simply shouldn't have to.

I don't think there's such a thing as "recent apps list from the system bar"
on my v2.1 device.

I find it surprising that there has been so much change between versions of
Android. I appreciate that multi-touch is quite new, but otherwise all this
flux seems to stem from a desire to be different rather than for useful
functionality.

The thing about keeping apps hanging around sounds good so long as the only
resource is memory. But I'm playing with apps that use Bluetooth and GPS
(latter data pumped out via former). So there are other resources that may
be mutually-exclusive, and/or use power, that I (as programmer and user)
want to have full control of.

[Neil Gould]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>
> And this isn't us app developers being lazy, there actually isn't a
> api in Android to exit the app entirely.
>

Interesting. How do some apps provide exit as an option in the menu if there
is no api for doing so?
--
best regards,

Neil

[Fredrik Jonson]

In <ki9ctv$6an$1...@speranza.aioe.org> Neil Gould wrote:
> Fredrik Jonson wrote:
> >
> > And this isn't us app developers being lazy, there actually isn't a
> > api in Android to exit the app entirely.
>
> Interesting. How do some apps provide exit as an option in the menu if there
> is no api for doing so?

There are various hacks, you can for example keep track of the activity back
stack, or use a custom signal to indicate that the user wants to exit the app,
and notify the activities that precedes the current one.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Fredrik Jonson]

Mike Coon wrote:

> I don't think there's such a thing as "recent apps list from the system bar"
> on my v2.1 device.

Correct, that's a new feature as of 3.0 IIRC. But as I also mentioned, you
really shouldn't have to force stop apps regularily.

> The thing about keeping apps hanging around sounds good so long as the only
> resource is memory. But I'm playing with apps that use Bluetooth and GPS
> (latter data pumped out via former). So there are other resources that may
> be mutually-exclusive, and/or use power, that I (as programmer and user)
> want to have full control of.

And well behaved apps should let go of those resources too, when the system
notifies them that the app is placed in the background. Of course, if the
app is recording your gps route, like the app My tracks, it shouldn't stop,
because you've instructed it to keep going.

You can stop gps and bluetooth independently, there are widgets that let you do
it from the home screen. So if you have an app that misbehaves that's another
way around your resource problem.

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Richard Owlett]

Fredrik Jonson wrote:
> Richard Owlett wrote:
>> Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>>
>>> I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any
>>> documentation to get the hang of android. Just tap around and explore.
>>
>> ROFL! Now that I've picked myself off the floor, maybe I can give a
>> useful reply.
>
> I always enjoy making others laugh, so, You're welcome. :)
>
> Thank's for your story, the one about the power button long press reminded
> me that some things are only really obvious when you already know them.

And it makes sense as design decision. Just how often will a
desktop or laptop power switch be hit accidentally?

>
>> I bought it as a tool not a toy. How many years will I doing things the
>> hard why when IF THERE WAS DOCUMENTATION I could be being productive.
>
> Did you explore how you where going to use it as a tool before you bought
> it? I mean, if you wanted a really good tool for text entry, maybe a
> keyboardless tablet isn't the best choice?

Actually yes ;) What I really wanted was a PDA of
yesteryear. I had hoped that I could find the physical
equivalent of a smartphone WITHOUT the cell network
connectivity but with USB and/or WiFi. The closest I could
find were 7" tablets and Lenovo was a trusted name. Android
seemed a acceptable OS -- availability of open source software.

On screen keyboard is quite acceptable - equivalent of <
200 words/DAY.

>
>> Case in point. I want to make notes - I could burrow down thru "Documents
>> To Go" and get to create a new MS Word document. That should be a single
>> touch on my opening screen.
>
> AFAICT that app is primarily intended as a document viewer. I usually don't
> use my tablet or phone for notes, but I suspect you can find a more suitable
> note taking app than that.
>

As you are an Android app developer. I'll describe my
environment and what prompted to purchase a tablet.
[Maybe top brass at Lenovo/Google/etc will read and realize
that "DADDY does not know all/best]

Having suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury, I walk
with two canes.
Being of the tri-focal generation I abhor small print.
As part of ongoing physical therapy I exercise regularly at
a local fitness center and record the particulars.
For all equipment the date is recorded.
For strength related equipment number of sets, repetitions
per set, weight, and possibly displacement should be recorded.
For cardio equipment I record duration and two or three
equipment dependent parameters.

I envisioned using a simple database or spreadsheet. [If
Tcl/Tk were available on Android I would just write it myself.]
Lacking any of above, just use the most simple text editor
available and transfer to one of my less portable machines.

Now that I have the tablet I'll make other use of it.
1. I've had to quit taking my Bible to church as varying
methods of carrying it have proved hazardous. I've already
discovered one Bible program that runs on Android.
2. Having only dial-up internet access at home , I visit the
local library for any sizable download. A tablet will be
much more convenient than my laptop.
3. etc. etc. etc.

[Daniel James]

In article <goudnSK4u4byBNnM...@supernews.com>, Richard

Owlett wrote:
>> I think the general idea is that you shouldn't need to read any
>> documentation to get the hang of android. Just tap around and
>> explore.
>
> ROFL!

[snip]

>
> The "tap around and explore" methodology might be appropriate for a
> game device or for someone who had no idea of what a computer could
> be used for.

I remember manuals ... some of them were actually quite well written
and informative, though many were not.

Someone did some "research" -- it must have been in the mid-to-late
1990s -- on how computer manuals were used, and determined that over
90% of printed manuals were never opened. This was often because a
department had bought ten PCs with ten copies of the same software and
all ten users shared the one copy of the documentation on the shelf,
while the other nine copies languished in cupboards or were dumped in a
skip straight away. In other cases it was because a user already knew
how to use the software -- and maybe had manuals for a previous but
very similar version -- and didn't need the new books, or because the
user preferred to use online help rather than printed pages. If you
work on the move from a laptop you don't want to carry around a library
that weighs more than your PC.

Documentation is heavy and bulky, and storage space is scarce.

The industry's response to that was to realize that there was an
opportunity to save money by not providing documentation. The first
sign was manuals had to be explicitly ordered with the kit, at first
this was typically at no extra cost but later the manuals became
chargeable items on an order -- which meant that fewer people asked for
them -- and then they disappeared altogether. At about this time online
help became less detailed and less well written -- online help had
often been written by the same technical authors who were responsible
for the written manuals, and with the demise of written manuals the
technical authors went too (another saving!) so the online help was
cobbled together by developers. Developers often have little interest
in documentation -- and even less talent for it -- so the quality and
relevance of online help declined to the point at which it rarely said
anything that was helpful or relevant. It became apparent that users
didn't use online help any more, so vendors stopped supplying it
(another saving!)

Nowadays there is hardly ever any useful documentation at all and it is
only because many of us learnt to use computers before this happened
that we are able to muddle along and to show others the way.

I have a friend of a similar age (late 50s) but rather different
background (he used to run a typesetting business using Macs, I am a
software developer whose career has revolved around CP/M, Dos, Windows
and more recently Linux) from whom I occasionally receive an EMail with
a new rant about how he can't work out how to do things effectively
with his new (Windows) PC because there is no manual ... and I have to
explain to him (again) the economics of the situation. He then suggests
that there might be a book one could buy, and I point out that to write
a good and insightful book takes time and that even if a well-meaning
author were to take it upon himself to write the documentation my
friend so earnestly desires he wouldn't make any money out of it, and
the documentation would be out of date before it hit the shelves.

The only answer I can suggest is to FWITIW [to F(iddle) With It Till It
Works]. I'm happy to FWITIW because software is my field -- I'm
interested to see what happens, and I'm reasonably confident that I can
fix any damage I may inadvertently cause -- he's not so keen because to
him the computer is just a tool to help him get a job done.

So, yes, it is pretty-much assumed that those who use Android (or any
other modern system) will be able to figure out how to use it for
themselves ... because those who design it know full well that there
isn't going to be a manual.

I used to like manuals. It was good to have something to read that
would help me to learn a new system without having to have the system
there in front of me -- I could read the manual on the train, in bed,
in the bath ... wherever I happened to be. Of course, with Android I
have the whole the system in my pocket and can use it wherever I happen
to be ... so maybe the manual isn't quite so important?
--
Cheers,
Daniel.

[Mike Coon]

Daniel James wrote:
> Documentation is heavy and bulky, and storage space is scarce.

And the index is rarely good enough to compare with a search; so long as you
can identify the root of the tree that you want to search. It's that portal
you have to identify...

[Juan Wei]

Fredrik Jonson has written on 3/19/2013 2:28 AM:

>
> If you really don't trust an app, or it doesn't behave well you can stop it
> by opening the recent apps list from the system bar and swipe the app to the
> side to terminate it immediately. But normally you simply shouldn't have to.

System bar?
Recent apps list?

[Fredrik Jonson]

Heh, err... Hrm. Ok. So here we go. On recent android phones, and almost all
android tablets with Android 4.0 or better, there is a black bar at the
bottom of the screen that contains the back button, the home button and the
resent apps button. That is the system bar, a.k.a. the navigation bar. If
you have a phone with physical buttons, the navigation bar isn't visible,
but the functionality is mapped to the physical buttons instead. For
example, on a Sony Ericsson Arc, the Resents list is avalable when you long
press the home button.

https://developer.android.com/design/patterns/new.html (see Android 4.0)

Users of Android < 3.0 has to install a task manager to get similar
functionality. Or, as I mentioned, they can stop using broken apps, so that
they dont have to hunt for apps with resource leaks all the time. I'm
serious, just uninstall and find an equivalent. There are 800 000 apps on
Google Play, surely you can stay away from poor implementations? :)

--
Fredrik Jonson

[Whiskers]

On 2013-03-19, Richard Owlett <row...@pcnetinc.com> wrote:
> Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>> Richard Owlett wrote:
>>> Fredrik Jonson wrote:

[...]

> Actually yes ;) What I really wanted was a PDA of
> yesteryear. I had hoped that I could find the physical
> equivalent of a smartphone WITHOUT the cell network
> connectivity but with USB and/or WiFi. The closest I could
> find were 7" tablets and Lenovo was a trusted name. Android
> seemed a acceptable OS -- availability of open source software.
>
> On screen keyboard is quite acceptable - equivalent of <
> 200 words/DAY.

There are note-taking apps that include handwriting recognition; search for
that term in Google Play.

>>> Case in point. I want to make notes - I could burrow down thru "Documents
>>> To Go" and get to create a new MS Word document. That should be a single
>>> touch on my opening screen.
>>
>> AFAICT that app is primarily intended as a document viewer. I usually don't
>> use my tablet or phone for notes, but I suspect you can find a more suitable
>> note taking app than that.

There are many note-taking apps in Google Play, some with interesting
features that might suit particular requirements, and some that offer
connection with on-line services ("the cloud").

As a general-purpose note-taking app, I like "Jota".

> As you are an Android app developer. I'll describe my
> environment and what prompted to purchase a tablet.
> [Maybe top brass at Lenovo/Google/etc will read and realize
> that "DADDY does not know all/best]
>
> Having suffered an incomplete spinal cord injury, I walk
> with two canes.
> Being of the tri-focal generation I abhor small print.

Likewise.

> As part of ongoing physical therapy I exercise regularly at
> a local fitness center and record the particulars.
> For all equipment the date is recorded.
> For strength related equipment number of sets, repetitions
> per set, weight, and possibly displacement should be recorded.
> For cardio equipment I record duration and two or three
> equipment dependent parameters.
>
> I envisioned using a simple database or spreadsheet. [If
> Tcl/Tk were available on Android I would just write it myself.]
> Lacking any of above, just use the most simple text editor
> available and transfer to one of my less portable machines.

There are spreadsheet apps too.

I've found the camera in my smartphone is quite handy for recording such
things as notices from a notice board or price tickets in shops or the
electricity meter.

> Now that I have the tablet I'll make other use of it.
> 1. I've had to quit taking my Bible to church as varying
> methods of carrying it have proved hazardous. I've already
> discovered one Bible program that runs on Android.
> 2. Having only dial-up internet access at home , I visit the
> local library for any sizable download. A tablet will be
> much more convenient than my laptop.
> 3. etc. etc. etc.

Visit Google Play (the Android app store) next time you're in the library,
or anywhere else with free WiFi - see <http://www.hotspot-locations.co.uk/>
or <http://www.wigle.net/> for example, for lists of public "hot spots".

[Winston]

Maybe other alternatives...

Since you said:

Richard Owlett <row...@pcnetinc.com> writes:
> Lacking any of above, just use the most simple text editor available and
> transfer to one of my less portable machines.

you actually don't *have* to have a text editor to do:

> As part of ongoing physical therapy I exercise regularly at a local fitness
> center and record the particulars.
> For all equipment the date is recorded.
> For strength related equipment number of sets, repetitions per set, weight,
> and possibly displacement should be recorded.
> For cardio equipment I record duration and two or three equipment dependent
> parameters.

1) What about voice notes that you play back once you're home? Push to
record, release to stop or something?

2) Is there a voice->text program (like Dragon) that would let you speak
the details?

Just a thought...
-WBE

[Juan Wei]

Fredrik Jonson has written on 3/19/2013 2:05 PM:

> In <kia6s1$2a5$1...@dont-email.me> Juan Wei wrote:
>> Fredrik Jonson has written on 3/19/2013 2:28 AM:
>> >
>> > If you really don't trust an app, or it doesn't behave well you can stop
>> > it by opening the recent apps list from the system bar and swipe the app
>> > to the side to terminate it immediately. But normally you simply
>> > shouldn't have to.
>>
>> System bar? Recent apps list?
>
> Heh, err... Hrm. Ok. So here we go. On recent android phones, and almost all
> android tablets with Android 4.0 or better, there is a black bar at the
> bottom of the screen that contains the back button, the home button and the
> resent apps button. That is the system bar, a.k.a. the navigation bar.

Or the "dock row". :-)

> If
> you have a phone with physical buttons, the navigation bar isn't visible,

S3 has a physical button and two virtual ones. The dock row *is*
visible. To get the screen of All/Recent/Running apps, one is required
to press the circle with the three columns of two dots each.

The icons in Recent are immobile.

[c...@isbd.net]

Daniel James <dan...@me.invalid> wrote:
>
> Documentation is heavy and bulky, and storage space is scarce.
>

Only if it's on paper. It weighs nothing if provided as a PDF file
(or whatever) on the device to which it applies.

--
Chris Green

[Richard Owlett]

Winston wrote:
> Maybe other alternatives...
>
> Since you said:
>
> Richard Owlett <row...@pcnetinc.com> writes:
>> Lacking any of above, just use the most simple text editor available and
>> transfer to one of my less portable machines.
>
> you actually don't *have* to have a text editor to do:
>
>> As part of ongoing physical therapy I exercise regularly at a local fitness
>> center and record the particulars.
>> For all equipment the date is recorded.
>> For strength related equipment number of sets, repetitions per set, weight,
>> and possibly displacement should be recorded.
>> For cardio equipment I record duration and two or three equipment dependent
>> parameters.
>
> 1) What about voice notes that you play back once you're home? Push to
> record, release to stop or something?

I've experimented with that mode several years ago using a
small handheld recorder. It just didn't work out for me.

>
> 2) Is there a voice->text program (like Dragon) that would let you speak
> the details?

I sort of keep up with voice recognition. I'm not aware of
any would run on a minimal tablet that could work in a noisy
environment without a mike very close and at a constant
distance from the mouth.

The type of apps I was looking for is definitely biased
towards work patterns I developed over the years.
Over the 20 years or so "personal" has been leaving
"personal computer" to be replaced by what
Microsoft/Canonica/Google/etc think the customer should want
to do.



>
> Just a thought...
> -WBE
>

[Richard Owlett]

And it will compress nicely if in plaintext or HTML.

[Bruce Sinclair]

Yep.

And personally, I disagree with the OP's comments. Books are good. :)

That manufacturers seem to now think they can get away producing products
without manuals of any kind seems to me to be amazing. :)

[tlvp]

On 18 Mar 2013 20:41:04 GMT, Fredrik Jonson wrote:

> Did you explore how you where going to use it as a tool before you bought
> it?

You're joking, of course, no :-) ? How to do such exploring, for a device
one hasn't bought -- or even touched or seen -- yet? Cheers, -- tlvp

[Richard Owlett]

tlvp wrote:
> On 18 Mar 2013 20:41:04 GMT, Fredrik Jonson wrote:
>
>> Did you explore how you where going to use it as a tool before you bought
>> it?
>
> You're joking, of course, no :-) ? How to do such exploring, for a device
> one hasn't bought -- or even touched or seen -- yet? Cheers, -- tlvp
>

My Personal Electronic Transactor by Commodore Business
Machines could have handled the task. Only problem would
have been portability ;)

[Ivan D. Reid]

On Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:27:55 -0500, Richard Owlett <row...@pcnetinc.com>
wrote in <GpCdnQZGd7jC5tbM...@supernews.com>:

> My Personal Electronic Transactor by Commodore Business
> Machines could have handled the task. Only problem would
> have been portability ;)

Now you're going back in time... We had the first one in
Australia, had to get a custom-made transformer to power it (despite
stepping down the input from 240 VAC to 115 VAC, the original overheated
because it didn't like 50 Hz rather than 60 Hz). Very unstable, until I
propped it open for several days hooked up to two oscilloscopes and a
digital probe -- found a very intermittent short between the very pin that
halted the CPU and ground. Long story short, a clipped-off tail of a
transistor/power-regulator lead had flown and lodged under the CPU and
occasionally vibrated around to make the (in)appropriate short.

It had an implementation of an IEEE 488 port with one quirk; if a
command took more than a second to implement (a timer counting down) it
aborted, so I had to simplify command strings (to, e.g., an [(hp)] plotter)
to make sure all commands fitted into that time interval.

--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

[Trevor]

I noticed that a user manual was automatically added to my Google Books
library after purchasing a Google Nexus 4, but I haven't looked at it
yet to see how deep it goes.

[Daniel James]

In article <kidf60$olv$1...@dont-email.me>, Bruce Sinclair wrote:
> And personally, I disagree with the OP's comments. Books are good. :)

No, only *good* books are good.

I agree with you ... I'd love to have good books. The trouble is that
the books that were being written and passed off as documentation were
almost never even half-decent. I haven't seen a good one in ... at
least fifteen years.

> That manufacturers seem to now think they can get away producing
> products without manuals of any kind seems to me to be amazing. :)

Agreed.
--
Cheers,
Daniel.

[Bruce Sinclair]

In article <VA.0000079...@me.invalid>, Daniel James <dan...@me.invalid> wrote:
>In article <kidf60$olv$1...@dont-email.me>, Bruce Sinclair wrote:
>> And personally, I disagree with the OP's comments. Books are good. :)
>
>No, only *good* books are good.
>
>I agree with you ... I'd love to have good books. The trouble is that
>the books that were being written and passed off as documentation were
>almost never even half-decent. I haven't seen a good one in ... at
>least fifteen years.

Indeed. The art of writing good docs seems to have died (with the web, pdf
and the CD ?). The worryiing thing to me is ... what does this mean ?
Either ...
1) No one reads them so there's no point.
2) No one needs to read them as the machines are "intuitive" enough to allow
everyone to do everything.
3) The machines will be dead in a year (or replaced with a new model), so
it's a waste of time.

At least 2 and 3 above give me cause for concern. :)

Our cheapo nobrand tablet was sufficiently intuitive for me to do a few
things ... but ... I *know* there are things I don't know. Where do I find
out what they are ? :)

[Daniel James]

In article <kjd5as$hpk$1...@dont-email.me>, Bruce Sinclair wrote:
> Indeed. The art of writing good docs seems to have died (with
> the web, pdf and the CD ?). The worryiing thing to me is ... what
> does this mean ?

I don't know whether the art has died, but its practice does seem to
have declined. I think the problem is that software vendors (and
others) no longer see any benefit in investing in good-quality
documentation.

> 1) No one reads them so there's no point.

It's certainly true that many copies of printed manuals supplied with
e.g. software were found never to have been read, so vendors decided to
save costs and not provide printed manuals as part of the package. When
this trend started it was common to see manuals offered at a (fairly
nominal) extra cost and/or supplied as (say) PDFs, though, so that
isn't when the writing of manuals declined.

> 2) No one needs to read them as the machines are "intuitive" enough
> to allow everyone to do everything.

That is manifestly not the case ... except possibly in the wishful
thinking of those who would have to pay to have manuals produced.

> 3) The machines will be dead in a year (or replaced with a new
> model), so it's a waste of time.

There's a lot of truth in that. It's not so much that machines will
last for only a year as that the software will change so dramatically
in that year that any documentation will become obsolete.

This isn't so much an argument against producing documentation as one
against producing documentation in a static form (such as hard copy)
and in favour of providing documentation in a form that can be updated
incrementally as the components of the product are themselves updated
(while, of course, still ensuring that the older documentation is still
easily accessible for those who cannot or will not update, and for
those who want to compare versions).

However, that process of incremental development itself implies a cost
that the vendor may be unwilling to bear ... so he may attempt to save
money by encouraging only outline documentation (perhaps on a Wiki that
the users themselves can be encouraged to expand). For some vendors
even that is seen as a cost that can be cut to bring the product price
down in the hope of attracting more buyers.

> Our cheapo nobrand tablet was sufficiently intuitive for me to do
> a few things ... but ... I *know* there are things I don't know.
> Where do I find out what they are ? :)

Quite.

Cheers,
Daniel.

[Miles]

* Richard Owlett wrote, On 16-Mar-13 20:58:
> I just purchased a Lenovo 7" Tablet with Android 4.0 .
> There is essentially no documentation in the package.
> I found
> http://download.lenovo.com/consumer/mobiles_pub/ideatab_a2107a_ug/data/EN/index.html
> which is minimally sufficient as a starting point. I bought
> the version WITHOUT cell network connectivity as what I
> really wanted was a PDA from yesteryear.
>
> Suggestions of where to start reading?
> TIA
>

Found an Android app and don't know if it will be of any assistance
for your Lenovo. It's called "user manual" and was written for the
Android interface only, not viewable in Windows. It is viewable in
English if you click on that link near the top of the home page -- in
fact it reads that it will be in English (one of these years). I have
no idea how inclusive it is for I haven't yet had time to delve into
the contents. The icon is similar to a brown covered book with a
large question mark enclosed in a circle in the center and apparently
is related to Samsung.

[Richard Owlett]

What is the URL of the homepage you are referring to?
TIA

[Miles]

* Richard Owlett wrote, On 30-Jun-13 18:01:

When I search for it on the computer using Firefox am led to a site
that reads this manual is not for computers and it can't be opened.

On the Note go to Internet and search for
www.samsung.com\m-manual\common And it opens in a foreign language
which is easily changed to English using I believe the 2nd paragraph.
If you find a way to have it open in English, please let me know.
Miles