At 4:46 PM -0800 1/6/06, Brad Beyenhof wrote:
I'm not saying that any of those options is a good one or a bad one (personally, I'd go for the complete user-oriented overhaul); I'm just thinking about the ramifications of the various choices.
If anyone remembers the late, and VERY unlamented, Professional Composer from MotU, you'll also remember that their replacement, Composer's Mosaic, was in fact a complete overhaul with no inheritance from PC except the ability to translate PC files into CM format. Thing is, it was such a total improvement nobody cared about the changes, even though the learning curve was just as frustrating as for any other reasonably powerful program at the time.
I'd say that both sides in this discussion are absolutely right! Of course you have to learn to use any powerful program and its ins and outs. I probably use about 10% of what Word or Excel can do because I've never needed to do anything more with them. But that is not and never will be an excuse for not making as many things as possible as intuitive as possible. I remember struggling to learn the Wordstar program my mom had on her computer, and how frustrating it was because it seemed that every single thing was a programer's arbitrary decision, without the slightest input from a psychologist who understood how the human mind works. I also remember when the database program that was considered the state of the art absolutely REQUIRED hiring a team to teach the users how to use it.
When our department adopted Mosaic in the early 90s (and yes, our first program was Composer, which fit so nicely on our brand new Mac LCs!), MotU sent a musician to demonstrate it and get us started, not a programer. We phased in Finale starting in about 1998, or whenever MotU stopped supporting and developing Mosaic, and I'd say that 10% of our students could use it well and the other 90% absolutely hated it! Then we moved to Sibelius the year all our freshmen would be arriving with OS X machines, and Coda dropped the ball, and I'd say the ratio among students is about 75% or better satisfied and 25% or fewer frustrated. Yes, Virginia, intuitive is a Good Thing!!
Will MakeMusic take the good advice people have been discussing? Easy to answer. Just give me an estimate of what it would cost, vs. a projection of potential market in terms of units sold. Present management does NOT strike me as being very adventurous!
John -- John & Susie Howell Virginia Tech Department of Music Blacksburg, Virginia, U.S.A 24061-0240 Vox (540) 231-8411 Fax (540) 231-5034 (mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]) http://www.music.vt.edu/faculty/howell/howell.html _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
