[Elecraft] The case against touch screens

[Wes]

Speaking of F22s, I got to see a demo of one at this weekend's airshow at 
DMAFB.  Also on hand were the USAF Thunderbirds.  I think there are a lot 
politicians who should have to attend one of these to see how tax money should 
be spent.

I understand the gloves comment.  It's a PITA to have to remove my gloves while 
driving to simply change a radio station.

On 3/25/2019 11:50 AM, Mark Petiford via Elecraft wrote:
>   RE:  You assume that touch screens are inherently unreliable. Try to convince
> and F22 pilot of that, or a 777 gunnery crew.
>
> You assume that aircraft with flat panel displays utilize touch screens.  The military aircraft I have worked (Design Engineering) that have flat panel displays do NOT utilize touch displays.  The reasons are primarily touch resolution, and stability.
>
> Military pilots must be able to select functions while wearing heavy gloves, so they do not have great resolution as to where their touch will land.  They must also be able to reliably select functions during high G loading, both natural (turbulence) and induced (maneuvering).  Consequently, their flat displays usually consist of the main display, surrounded by hardware buttons (switches) which are separated with raised "dividers" or "walls" to separate the buttons. These buttons have small on-screen labels that change depending on which screen is being displayed.  We used to call these "soft buttons".
>
>
> I could go on, but will stop with that.  While I love the modern flat screen color displays (my uBITX will have one soon),  I must side with Wayne in that the functions that must be addressed when time is critical (can't remember how Wayne described it) should be hard buttons or "soft buttons" noted above).
>
> Mark,
> KE6BB
>