Josh. We'll have to agree to disagree on this one. Yes, as a beta
tester myself, I can appreciate your points during the early stages
of develpment. But Leopard is not in the early stages of
development. It's mere weeks away from release. It's just
incredibly unlikely that such significant changes will occur in
hardware between now and the official release of Leopard which would
break their support. And in any case, all Apple needs to do is say
as of such and such a date, this hardware revision is supported. No,
I'm sorry, I think as I said we'll have to agree to disagree. If I
were to go out and buy display A with hardware revision 1.x.x and
then Apple were to announce that only revision 2.x.x would work, then
yes, I can understand that. Your point about dozens of displays is,
of course, valid. But when Window-Eyes first had Braille support
implemented, those same dozens of displays were all added at once.
Granted some have been added in the time since then. But that's
perfectly understandable. So the only word I can think of to
describe Apple's approach is coy. I understand that they're covering
their backs. But they're really not helping their customers to be
ready for the switch. Okay, taking your point one stage further.
What happens if Apple releases Leopard and they state that display x
is supported. I go out and buy display x, only to find that the
hardware has changed. Same situation, is it not? So still I'm no
further forward.
On 17 Mar 2007, at 15:02, Josh de Lioncourt wrote:
Hi Gordon and Will,
Let me create a scenario for you to hopefully give you a better idea
of what Apple is up against. What if Apple made a public statement
that displays X, Y, and Z would be supported in Leopard. Then,
Gordon, you went out and bought display Y for yourself. Something
goes wrong in the development of Leopard. It could be something as
simple as the manufacturer of display Y made significant changes to
how their display communicates with a computer, or something else.
And when Leopard was released, display Y was no longer on the
supported list. You'd be peeved...probably a lot more than peeved.
The Windows screen readers being public about what they support
doesn't hold much water. Those screen readers have been around for a
long time and support a lot of legacy hardware. If they make
announcements about additional displays they will support, it may
only be one or two, not a dozen or however many Apple ends up
supporting officially. This is the first time Leopard will,
presumably, support Braille output. Apple has to tread carefully in
case anything goes wrong, or risk upsetting customers.
I know first hand the enormous backlash you can get from customers in
these kinds of situations. Is it disappointing? Sure. I wish Apple
would go ahead and announce more things. But it isn't company policy,
and their company policy is a wise one.
Gordon Smith
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