At 09:34 PM 3/8/2004, JaMi Smith wrote:
This is kind of what I was trying to address in the DXP Forum with a post there, before Nick stepped in and totally side-stepped the issue by telling me to go read a link.
Pesky fellow, he, distracting us from our monomanias.
People keep calling Protel 2004 an "Upgrade".
Yes.
With the exception of the "Nano-Board" stuff, it occurs to me that this is not a real "Upgrade" in anything but name only, and that in respect to DXP Schematic and DXP PCB that this is really nothing more than the long long overdue Realease of "Service Pack 3".
There is an SP3 in Beta. My understanding is that Protel 2004 includes a lot more than SP3. There is enough improvement in 2004 that the term "Upgrade" is earned. A major service pack is often tantamount to an upgrade. 99SE was an upgrade.... more than a simple service pack, which might be confined to bug fixes only.
This seems to be somewhat comparable to the "Upgrade" from Protel 99 Service Pack 2 to Protel 99 SE, which if I understand it correctly, was actually also called Service Pack 3.
Yes. But it was really an upgrade. Protel sometimes includes operational enhancements in service packs, and bug fixes in upgrades. The latter is more unusual, because by the time service packs are no longer issued for a product, *most* of the bugs have been fixed, the true bugs.
The problem here is that while I understand that the step from Protel 99 to Protel 99 SE actually was in fact a really big step, what we appear to have here is simply some additional functionality, which you must pay for if you want, and which is clearly additional to the basic DXP Package, but that with respect to the basic Schematic and PCB Packaging part of DXP, we are only getting a Service Pack, and one that really doesen't look like it really may have addressed all of the problems in the "DXP Only" part of the package, based on what I am seeing here in the forums.
The only additional functionality that must be paid for, if one is getting the DXP-Protel2004 automatic upgrade, is the.... what's it called, the prototype board, the name slips my mind.
Respecting the issue of "too many trees" for Manuals, When I got my initial Release of DXP, I got a manual that was just over 3/8" thick that was an absolute joke (I am once again restraining myself to keep it clean here in the forum), that was totally worthless, and very soon actually obsolete.
The DXP manual was thin; however, at the same time, Altium did create a huge amount of additional documentation in PDF. I still find the conversion from 99SE to DXP a painful process, and so I'd like to see even additional documentation, though I think some of it would be better written by users.
Most of the DXP manual is not obsolete.
I can accept the fact that Altium did
not want to print any manuals while they were trying to get their collective DXP act together, but if they think that that time has come, and they have actually decided to go ahead and print a "THICK manual" as Mike called it, then I do believe that Altium "owes" one of these manuals to all of it's DXP customers, since it never delivered a useable manual in the first place, and have been "begging off" giving one to every DXP Licensee with various excuses over the last year and a half now.
Altium is not obligated to give us anything that was not included in the package when we purchased it. If we didn't consider the package adequate, we could have returned it then; at least that would have been the time to act. Manuals are expensive to print.
Now, if Altium gives its DXP-2004 free upgraders a manual, that would be a kindness. It would certainly be a nice gesture. But the reality of the situation does not warrant a tirade against Altium. The cost would be significant, though not so high that a shareholder of the company would be likely to complain!
Altium - If you have actually have printed a manual, then distribute it to the people that you have been stalling for the last year and a half, irrespective of the number of trees that it takes.
Sheesh. Did Altium promise a new manual, free? If so, I missed it, but I miss a lot. If they promised it, yes, they owe it. Otherwise, it would be an appreciated generosity, but not something to blame them about if they don't send it. Yes, I'm sure they've printed a manual. Some people have seen it, as reported here. But the press run would be sufficient for anticipated sales of new licenses. They aren't getting any additional revenue from the free upgrades.... However, Altium has always sold manuals in the past. If you lost your manual, you could buy a replacement. The 99SE manual was $90. I suspect that there is a price for the 2004 manual. Perhaps Altium could offer the manual for cost to DXP free upgraders. That would be a middle ground. If you don't want to pay it, you've got the PDFs....
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