I think the better course of action for us is to say - OK, that is the way it is. Of course, Garmin would then be updating the firmware of discontinued models and this cost would have to be passed on to the purchasers of newer models. It would be nice if Garmin would add a lot of features (in the instant case symbols) to their software - such as Basecamp - and also change the firmware in all of the devices to take advantage of these features. But does the fact that Garmin knows this automatically mean that software such as Basecamp or Mapsource should be redesigned to recognize which device is currently interacting with the program and then go through a reconciliation of which symbols should be available? I am almost certain that there does exist at Garmin a complete set of Waypoint Symbols, along with which devices use which 'favorite' symbols internally. Now, if sticking in negative comments is their alternative to posting in the 'Chit Chat' thread in order to get in their weekly post, I guess that is one way to do it. Would they have been willing to pay an additional, say, $50, if the feature they want was there? If they are so concerned about the 'crap', why don't they just say enough and switch to another manufacturer? The posters are the ones who either did no research or did not do enough research. Garmin did not force any of these posters to buy a Garmin versus a Magellan or a Tom Tom. Let me insert a comment which I have often wanted to make when I see posters using words like 'crap'. Well, I don't know what KenSny would say, but starting from scratch was an option taken very seldom because the enormous cost of doing so would have to be borne by someone. Should you go back to the design stage and do a fresh design that would incorporate all the features the users want and then reprogram the entire system and peripheral programs that interact with it?

Might there be elements in the design that would have the effect of making it difficult to provide some feature in the future? Absolutely! Seen it many times in my career. When this happens, I have to take a deep breath and say to myself, what might I have done if I were constructing the design for the software that offends me? Would I have known everything that a user might ever want the software to do 5 or 10 years down the road? Of course, I have to answer myself - No, that is unlikely. Even so, I find myself yelling at my computer when software does not respond as I think it should. I spent many years in systems, managing teams of application programmers.

Like KenSny, I think know a little about design and programming. Like I said bad programming.Īnd the thing with the Waypoint symbols is it not only bad programming it is short-sighted on how users would interface the GPS unit with Basecamp. But even in simulation mode it still does it.

Garmin waypoint symbols