All After being away from my desk for a week I read this thread and get that crazy d�j� vu feeling....
Like many other user support lists the focus on the tools has been lost through many statements of blind loyalty to Protel and has masked issues which should be brought 'front and centre' and attacked with the same ferocity as the generic ones we pick upon amongst ourselves. Protel is not and will never be 'all that'. I wish it could be, but it won't, reality check time. It does not matter how responsive Altium have been or the complete change in attitude over the years, their track record of unfinished versions, failed promises and lack of interest in developing what they have, as opposed to adding new bells, whistles and pretty things is entirely intact since P98 which is when I first used Protel seriously. Consistently they miss how to make things simpler and how to make the design flow better as the feature set of the tools expand. Currently the P2004 toolset could be compared to a Swiss army knife instead of precision tools, yeah, its got a lot, it can get the job done, just don't try micro surgery with it! But in saying that, the development progress of other tools seem stagnant compared to Protels. I have really lost faith in Altiums ability to pick up user requests via this or the DXP list as the posts are viewed with 'blinkers' on as they run the EDA market share 'horse race' which is an understandable priority in a business sense. The items they have picked up come from a favoured few to whom they do listen as they speak whatever language Altium understands. The items/features that would encourage me to dig deeper in my pocket for more Altium tools are a lot simpler than FPGA tools or the 'anti-climax' called Situs, and would save me I reckon 1-1.5 hours a day. So if I can save that over 5 working days, 40 working weeks x my hourly rate, well, add your own rate to that calculation and that's what I want from my tools, productivity first, cost second as long as cost < losses. Global edits (basic ones) and the file management system within DXP are a few points near the top of my list. At one point I shipped a Protel Demo CD or a nice cover letter with all the reference designs we do, as the Protel design files are shipped in the pack also, a practice I had to stop after DXP due to backlash, never had that issue with 99SE. These comments are my own opinions. John ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search previous postings: http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
