New Version: 2016.12.08 1.3.1.11226 [UPDATED]

[profrd]

Dear Tim Wessman,

first of all my Great Thanks to All at HP Prime Development Team !

Being a Proud Owner of a HP Prime ( from the First Hardware Revision ) and Long Time user of the Emulator ( since the early Betas from day One ), I would like to notice some small flaws I have observed since installation of the New 2016.12.08 (11226) Windows Emulator version.

My first concern is about the [ Check for Update ] of the [ New ] version, which in my case ( Windows 7 Home SP1 64 Bits ) is consistently returning "Could not connect to update server (http://ftp.hp.com)" ( with http:// added by HPMuseum Forum Mechanism ) although inspecting through (SysInternals) [ TCPView ] effective [ https ] connections to [ g(H)t(RRRR).houston.hp.com ] or [ g(A)t(RRRR).austin.hp.com ] are effectively Established ( initiating at local port 1430 and increasing local port number each time an unsuccessful new Check for Update is issued ), with (H), (A) and (RRRR) denoting (Random) server (Numbers), generated each time Check for Update is invoked.

Its worth of mention that One [ Single ] time the Update "seemed" to Sucessfully Start ( with a Blue Progress Bar being presented ), but which just in the middle of the process simply [ Terminated ] with the abrubt [ Crash ] of Prime Emulator, with the traditional Windows Message Program Has Stopped!

I've however recorded the following line from TCPView ( before crash ):

Process PID Protocol LocalAddress LocalPort RemoteAddress RemotePort STATE

HPPrime.exe 1200 TCP win7home64 ms-sql-s g1t6351.austin.hp.com https SYN_SENT

which reflects the final state from the Single partly succesful connection,
which could be compared with further unsuccesful attempts like

HPPrime.exe 3640 TCP win7home64 1449 g1t6361.austin.hp.com https ESTABLISHED

where the LocalPort numbers keep increasing without a successful connection to MS-SQL-SERVER, but the connection stays in ESTABLISHED State for near one minute ( while the user do not Disclose the Update process by pressing the [ Not Now ] buttom ).

From my point of view, the Check for Update of the New 2016 12 08 Emulator may sometime works, but in a rather erratically pattern... which Simply did Not happen to all Previous Emulators, since I did indeed discovered the New update by simply Checking for a New one while using the Prior Sucessful Emulator version ( 2016 10 17 ), which for me is still the Most Stable release ( at least concerning Seek for Updates feature ).

I'm aware of your Warning at the very beginning of the Post stating:

" If your network blocks direct connection the direct link can be found at ... ",

but since actually [ No ] Internet or Network configuration [ Change ] was effectively performed ( on my Win7SP1x64 ) since or prior the installtion of the New emulator, and the Older Emulator was never Blocked, and all Windows Standard Firewall rules do still keep Allowing any connection to or from HP Prime, I simply give up trying to understand what might be happening at all ...

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I will address a few more questions, the first one a simple Small "TYPO" were the small pop up Window [ TITLE ] when one selects Help / [ About HP Prime ] do indeed show the Correct information [ HP Prime Virtual Calculator ] in boldface [ Inside ] the small window, but with [ About HP "CONNECTIVITY KIT" ] presented as the small pop up [ TITLE ] ... ( enclosed "CAPITAL LETTERS" used just to POINT to the exact "TYPO" location ).

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After installing the new virtual calc and Selected the [ Medium ] Skin ( under Windows 7 Home SP1 64 Bits ), the Curved [ empty ] space between the Calculator Bottom Edge and the Right Angled Window corner has changed from the traditional [ WHITE ] background from which I have always seen on all previous Emulator versions ( since day one ), to a now [ BLACK ] background in the curved empty Space between the Calculator Bottom edge and the Window corner.

After a few triggering with the Calculator / [ Hide Titlebar ] option and trying to [ Enlarge and Reduce ] ( by Mouse Dragging ) the Medium Skin window corners, I was unexpectedly presented Back with the Traditional bottom [ WHITE ] background empy Space between the curved Calc bottom and right cornered Window edge, which I opted to keep as it is, without any further Interface triggering ( or any other Skin size change ).

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What I have personally "perceived" since the installation of the New ( Windows ) version of the emulator, is that its GUI probably may have been "revamped" from scratch, by the adoption of some [ New ] GUI Development Tool, due to some indescritible "subliminal" performance differences from the earlier versions, and the Enriched Icon based menu Options newly presented on the actual version.

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Finally I would like to address the point of a [ Still Missing ] feature ( at least on the Emulator side ) of [ Saving ] / [ Restoring ] the Home and CAS [ History ] to an External Backup File ...

This feature would simply allow one to go forth ( or back ) between Emulator versions, at least Saving their History contents.

What would be desirable from the Emulator point of view, would be Complete Backup options, like Saving not just History contents, but Hole Memory, Installed Program Apps and Calculator State, allowing a Full Restore after some Suspension point.

Clearly there's still ample space in a "To Do" List so as to allow better and continued Improvement ! ( and "Evolution" ... )

Yours Sincerely, wishing a Very Nice work to ALL at HP Prime TEAM, and a Happy and Very Productive New Year !

Prof. Ricardo Duarte

PS: It may be sometimes interesting to "peek" at Erwin's Ried page [ HP Prime Calculator bugs and suggestions ] at

[ http://www.tricider.com/brainstorming/2eKfifdjarx ]

since a Lot of valuable user Improvement [ Suggestions ] ( and a few Bugs Not elsewhere reported ) have been collected from a very Long Time.