Forum structure

General discussion about calculators, SwissMicros or otherwise
keithdalby
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Forum structure

Post by keithdalby »

Hello SwissMicro fans and RPN enthusiasts,

May I suggest that we put our heads together to come up with a sensible structure for the forum. What categories would be appropriate? Something about programming? Something about custom firmware? Something about bugs? Something about wish lists? A lounge for general chitchat​? Other related RPN news?

I don't know, just throwing some suggestions in to the virtual void.
H2X
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Re: Forum structure

Post by H2X »

Maybe create a forum category for the beta testing, to keep that separate from other stuff (assuming communication about the beta testing was part of the motivation for creating the forum in the first place)?

Perhaps also try to steer discussions about software and hardware in different directions as well?
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H2X
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Re: Forum structure

Post by H2X »

Is this forum primarily intended for the DM42, or for all things SwissMicros?
What is the metric tensor in imperial units?
KimWood
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Re: Forum structure

Post by KimWood »

The forum is a nice idea. I vote that it covers all things SwissMicros. The DM42 is going to be a very exciting release, and deserves a beta thread, but let's not forget the existing products. I remain a great fan (and proud owner) of several of Michael's other units too. To make this work, we will need to post early and often. I do hope that it takes off strongly. Kim
grsbanks
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Re: Forum structure

Post by grsbanks »

Before this forum becomes populated with too many topics and thus too unwieldy, I think we should decide upon a structure.

I would propose top-level fora as follows:

* Programming and software libraries
* Hardware
* Bug reports
* Tips, tricks & suggestions
* General discussion
* Non-SwissMicros machines

With the number of models of SwissMicros machines being comparatively small, I would suggest breaking the first four top-level fora into the models DM-11, DM-12, DM-15, DM-16, DM-41 and, of course, DM-42.

Cheers,
Godwin
Michael
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Re: Forum structure

Post by Michael »

Thank you all for joining this forum and for your help getting it started and populated.
The names of SwissMicros calculators do not have a hyphen, so they are called DM15, DM16, DM41 etc. and the larger models with an L at the end, i.e. DM15L. Also the DM42 has no hyphen.
grsbanks
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Re: Forum structure

Post by grsbanks »

Thanks for the correction :)

So, the hierarchy could look like this:

Code: Select all

+-+- Programming and software libraries
| +--- DM11
| +--- DM12
| +--- DM15
| +--- DM16
| +--- DM41
| +--- DM42
|
+-+- Hardware
| +--- DM11
| +--- DM12
| +--- DM15
| +--- DM16
| +--- DM41
| +--- DM42
|
+-+- Bug reports
| +--- DM11
| +--- DM12
| +--- DM15
| +--- DM16
| +--- DM41
| +--- DM42
|
+-+- Tips, tricks & suggestions
| +--- DM11
| +--- DM12
| +--- DM15
| +--- DM16
| +--- DM41
| +--- DM42
|
+--- General discussion
|
+--- Non-SwissMicros machines
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enn
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Re: Forum structure

Post by enn »

I'm not sure it makes sense to separate tips and suggestions by machine type. There is presumably a lot of overlap. I think it makes sense for bugs. Not sure about programming--are the innards so different that a program for one wouldn't work on another? It feels clunky to look for a conversation about a program that does X under 6 (and eventually more) different threads.
DaveBaum
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Re: Forum structure

Post by DaveBaum »

Introducing some structure is an excellent idea, but be careful not to over-structure things. Breaking out bug reports by model makes sense since there's a high probability that the bug is only of interest to users of that model. Same for any hardware-specific categories.

I'm less certain about the programming and tips and tricks categories. When the community is small, more eyes looking at all of the questions is a good thing. For example, I believe DM11, DM12, DM15, and DM16 share the exact same stack manipulation model, so tips about how to use that effectively would apply to all four calculators (and to a lesser degree perhaps also the DM41 and DM42). I'd expect a lot of overlap between DM41 and DM42... IIRC the original 42S manual contained a section dedicated to porting 41 programs to the 42.

Personally, I'd err on the side of fewer sub-categories initially and only add them if there's a high volume of posting. At that point you'd also have better information about how the questions clump together (are there a lot of questions that apply to all DM1x or is it just DM11/DM15 that seem to be clumped together?, etc).
DM42 SN: 00038
H2X
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Re: Forum structure

Post by H2X »

Does this forum support tags? If so, might tags be a good way to reference the different calculators across categories?
What is the metric tensor in imperial units?
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