20 Mar
2010
20 Mar
'10
12:53 p.m.
On Mar 20, 2010, at 2:23 PM, Tony Duell wrote:
No I can't (and this has nothing to do with the machine I run
here). Even
when I use a modern PC running something standard I find I can't 'flip
through' a website like I can flip through a data book. In fact I find
trying to read any sort of techncial documentation from a screen to be
very annoying..
Even with a modern machine and a fast internet connection it simply
takes
too ling to 'flip through' a collection of data sheets.
That depends entirely on the design of the website.
Tony, I don't mean to be insulting here, but it's simply ludicrous
to assume that all new developments are evil simply because they are
new. Dismissing things for that reason really is unbecoming of a
person of your caliber. If you've ever actually TRIED this, without
going into it under the assumption that it will fail (and thus
finding a way to make it fail), making these sorts of statements is
just plain silly. There's a whole world of engineers out there, some
of whom are even almost as good as you are, who AREN'T hampered into
uselessness because downloadable PDF files have largely replaced
printed databooks.
I am a book fanatic. I have a library in my house that contains
well over a thousand books. NONE of them are fiction...they're all
technical books. I love them. I also have a big shelf full of
databooks, maybe 30-35 of them that I keep around, and about a
hundred more in the closet that I haven't used in years. I LOVE
books. I'm just as much of a book curmudgeon as you are. But now
that mostly everything is available electronically, I find it FAR FAR
FAR faster and easier to access it that way.
And if I REALLY want it on paper, which I often do, I just print it.
I do, whenever I download one. Data storage is cheap, I have
effectively unlimited data storage capacity here, so I keep them.
And there will always be chips for which there's no documentation
available. That problem is NOT specific to electronic formats!
Oh good heavens.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
Port Charlotte, FL
Err no. At one time we had these wonderful things
called 'data
books' I'd
flip through them to see what chips were available, their featurs,
etc. I
bought a lot of said books.
You can do that on their websites, without killing trees. (not in seconds,
rather than having to wait for weeks to find a copy of a
databook that I don't have. I have nearly three thousand PDF
There are 2 issues here.
Firstly, there are components that I have used for which I can't
find the
data sheets in any archive on the web. An example would be the SAA5070
(and yes it is used in classic computers). OK, _current_ device data
sheets are probably available, but I wonder if anyone is archiving
those. The second issue is that yes, I will agree that being
able to download
data wheets is a Good Thing. But that doesn't mean this has to
_replace_
data books. It is a very common falacy that because <a> is better than
<b> for some application, it has to be better for all applications
[1].
I don't think anyone ever said that. But you've been implying
that PDF datasheets are USELESS, to EVERYONE, ALL THE TIME, FOREVER,
and that they might just be the root of all evil.
And as for 'wait a few weeks', when I was
buing databooks about 10
or 20
years ago, they generally came next day. Quite a few companies also
kept
archives of their old data sheets and would send a hptocopy next day
(free or for a nominal charge).
When I was buying them 10 or 20 years ago, it took a few weeks,
unless I was working for an organization that, for some reason, had
the attention of a semiconductor manufacturer sales-droid who would
bend over backwards in the hopes of getting a million-unit sale.
Perhaps things are better in the UK in that department.
datasheets
now, and those are just for parts that I've been
interested in for one reason or another. (curiosity, repair, use in
new design, found a chip somewhere and wanted to know what it is,
etc) I have about 35-40 databooks, and now I have FAR more useful
information available to me then when I used to use those databooks
regularly.
Not all change is automatically bad.
True, but I think this one is. And I am actually still trying to
think of
a change in the last 20 years that's been for the better...