Eric Dannewitz wrote:
Aaron Sherber wrote:
I'm not trying to be the king of Finale, and you're welcome to say whatever you like on this topic. My point was just that when we're discussing the bugs in Finale, the fact that you haven't encountered those bugs doesn't change the fact that they're still there.
But does that mean that everyone encounters them? No. Oh, and now I can comment this topic even though your previous email said I shouldn't???
I've avoided responding to this thread because I knew things would get heated. But if I might interject for a moment...
I've been beta testing products in this arena since the late 1980's. Bugs are extremely frustrating things, and there are bugs that go out of their way to set new records in frustration.
Bugs exist.
Some bugs bite some people, but leave others alone, regardless of the features that everyone uses. Sometimes bugs are tied to the most arcane issues, like the version of a shared library that got installed by some other package, or the version of a driver, or even hardware device versions.
There are two issues that have to be considered. Most folks use the terms severity and priority to distinguish these issues.
For example, I had a bug where my system simply would not run the program in question (my apologies for dancing around specifics, there are NDAs involved) in a certain configuration. Out of a dozen people with very similar configurations (same motherboard, sound card, operating system, etc) I was the only one with the problem. It was, however, a fairly high priority bug for the developer because it could cause a lot of customers headaches. It was severe to me, but it wasn't severe, or even reproducible to other testers. In the end they found it, beats me how!
So, if Aaron has experienced a bug, and can reproduce it, it is severe to him. If Eric has never seen this particular bug it isn't severe to him. This does not imply that either user uses more features, that is one possible explanation, but it isn't the only one. And if you are Aaron, you get really really steamed when other folks don't have the same problem. And if you are Erik, you get annoyed at all the attention this bug gets from Aaron, and maybe others, cause you have other bugs or features that interest you.
And if you are MakeMusic, you are pulling your hair out<G>!
One of the single most difficult decisions a business has to make is which bugs and feature requests to address for any given version or patch. One factor is the amount of noise in the user community, and that is often a very fair metric (unless you are in the minority<G>!) However, these software companies are often infested with technical folks, and technical folks have a whole nother view of the world. Among other things, they strive to write bug free code. They also usually have opinions on what is, and what is not important. And they are seldom shy in expressing them!!! Much to the chagrin of the marketing and sales and product management folks.
This list, and resources like it serve a very important purpose... they give us, the users, a voice. A very loud voice! And we need to use that "feature" as best we can. Part of that is not attacking eachother, or the folks at MakeMusic. It's hard not to attack sometimes.
I'm not a Finale power user by any stretch, but when it doesn't do something I want it to do I can get quite frustrated. Sometimes it is a product feature I just haven't figured out yet, and sometimes it is a bug, or a missing capability. Doesn't matter a whit in the heat of the moment... I get frustrated. (Fortunately my dog weighs about 80 pounds, so I couldn't kick him if I wanted to!)
So, my humble suggestion to everyone who wants to storm the MakeMusic castle (and it isn't completely undeserved)... take a moment, and then lets work together to get all of our requests and complaints heard. It is almost as important as the sharing of knowledge that goes on here.
Thanks, by the way, for all the knowledge I've gleaned from this group since I became a Finale user. Someday I hope to pay it back!
Bill
-- Bill Thompson Audio Enterprise KB3KJF -- "All truths are easy to understand once they are discovered; the point is to discover them." Galileo Galilei. --
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