[hpsdr] PowerSDR, cuSDR and new GUI for HPSDR.

[Scott Traurig]

Bert brings up an excellent topic of discussion. I would submit that at
some point in the evolution of any system that the UI becomes the *most*
important thing. For, to the user, the UI *is* the system. The average user
has no appreciation for the phenomenal engineering that lies under the
surface. And, even if the user appreciates that engineering, the average
user has no patience for it if he cannot easily access, control and exploit
it. And, most importantly, the UI becomes *the* limiting feature of the
system, not the underlying DSP.

I would further submit that the available openHPSDR hardware, firmware and
software has now reached that state of evolution. First of all, it is a
technological tour de force, having reached a level of capability where
additional increases in performance will be incremental and relatively
infrequent (and please don't start arguing about things like DFC, that is
merely form, not function). Second, it is highly complex, with a very large
number of controls, settings and features. Third, it has reached a level of
popularity well beyond that of the original razor's edge, state-of-the-art,
user demographic, now instead being sold to "regular" hams through such
channels as Ham Radio Outlet.

The "razor's edge" crowd gets giggly at each, tiny new DSP capability and
is happy to work hard to be able to experiment with the new capability. The
"regular" crowd just wants to make contacts as efficiently and elegantly as
possible, and wants the capability to work for them, not the other way
around. If they have to work hard to use a new feature then the feature
will be ignored and therefore might as well not even be there.

So, particularly after Thetis and the new firmware is released, now is the
time to shift focus onto UI improvements, as that is the area where the
greatest number and most important *performance* improvements can be made.
More sub-receivers. Better audio mixing. More and better displays of
spectral data. More and better access to subreceivers for digi modes. More
and better VFO and split controls. SO2R controls. The list is very long,
and the mere fact that the list *is* very long iin comparison to the list
of of potential DSP improvements is proof in itself that this is where
effort should now be concentrated. This is where, from a user perspective,
the biggest "bang for the buck" will come from.

73,

Scott/w-u-2-o
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.openhpsdr.org/pipermail/hpsdr-openhpsdr.org/attachments/20161022/a1e28d99/attachment.htm>