Startled, Joey looks up from his comic book.
    "Double-dealing device dependence, Roo-man!  Look at this!!  To achieve his
insidious desired results, he's sacrificed device independence!!!  He's writing
the old error message to the LCD only!!!!  After the user lets go of the key,
he simply refreshes the LCD from its own internal software buffer!!!!!"
    "That's good, Joey!!!!!!  Why don't you stop shouting now!!!!!!!"
    "Sorry, Roo-man."

                --excerpt from the HP-75 Internal Design Specification
                [They just don't write docs like they used to   -jkh-]

----------
Note from Joe Horn about these recurring KANGAROO files:

In case you were wondering, the HP-75 design team was headed by a fellow from
Australia; the machine's code name was Kangaroo; and in Australian lingo, a
baby kangaroo is called a "joey".  The antics of Roo-man and Joey sprinkled
throughout the IDS were combinations of therapeutic deadline-anxiety catharsis
and real-life teamwork journalism.  The authors had no idea that the IDS would
ever become public, and wrote with blissful abandon.  Subsequent IDS's have
been purely informational, and self-consciously stilted.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, I asked one of the beautiful young ladies on
that design team, "And who was Wendy?"

She smiled and slyly said, "Oh, different people."

"Was it ever you?"

Her eyes twinkled.  "Sometimes," she grinned.

It makes me smile, and makes me think.  These machines are fun because fun
people made them, and had fun doing it.  Even if the documentation nowadays
has become boring, the machines never have.  We come into contact with the
joy that the HP engineers have when we wrap our minds around the logic of
their code and their user interface designs.  It's a contagious enthusiasm.

-jkh-