Thursday, January 13, 2000, 2:48:18 PM, Allie wrote:
> <begin speculation> I think the deviation from your more ideal
> paradigm is based on the fact that most windows based editors don't
> provide advanced e-mail type editing functions especially with respect to
> quoting. Also, an integrated editor, perhaps works better in ways
> discussed earlier. I would think that tighter integration of the in-built
> text editor as well as the relatively basic editing demands for e-mail and
> news message composing perhaps kindled the whole thing. </end speculation>
I actually would call this a chicken and the egg problem. The editors
don't have such functionality because email clients generally don't take
advantage of external editors. They don't take advantage of external editors
because there generally aren't any that provide email specific functionality.
IE, the demand needs to be there before the people will code it in and the
demand is there because the features aren't there. ;)
> largely as a result of the software developers efforts to cater to the
> newbies needs.
O-Bing!
> Unfortunately a great segment of users do remain relative newbies and never
> mature. They therefore use an application and expect it to support the
> ability to do all possible tasks directly or indirectly related to the
> applications core purpose. Enter the monolithic app.
ICQ turning into a personal information manager, for example. It is an IM
client and they put a semi-functional PIM in there! Why? Can't sync with my
palm as much as I can tell. I bet someone, somewhere thought it was a good
idea, mentioned it on a mailing list and a bunch of newbies supported it. ;)
> IMO, after all of this rambling, is that both paradigms do have their
> place and it gets very uncomfortable for each user type when one paradigm
> drowns out another.
Correct again. In my case I evangelize the compartmentalized approach
only so far as it is logical to do so. I like Windows email clients because I
can check multiple accounts from a single client. Unix clients do not offer
this functionality and I think it is essential since other client/server
applications allow you to connect to multiple servers in a single session.
Meanwhile, I dislike how Windows clients include things like editors and spell
checkers because they are distinctly separate applications.
> Version 2 of TB! seems to be on a monolithic road of development and
> this is not good considering it's prime userbase. As Steve rightly said,
> the userbase interested in the monolithic slant to development are
> already using freeware they are happy with.
Even if they aren't the chances of the newbie segment looking for other
software is slim because they aren't well versed enough to go looking, to
install, etc.
The hardest part, I do admit, for commercial software developers is to not
get into the "checkbox" game with their competitors. What this is in reference
to is the marketing ply of coming up with a series of line items, listing all
the competitors on a grid, and having your checkboxes all checked while having
your competitors lack check boxes. The implication is that the one with more
checkboxes is clearly superior.
It is hard for commercial developers to say "No, we're not going to
include that feature." The reason is it is so easy to see the gains made by
adding functionality. "Well, if we add feature abc, we'll get customers from
segment xyz." What is harder to quantify is the loss of identity and the lost
customers because of that dubious factor of bloat.
--
Steve C. Lamb | I'm your priest, I'm your shrink, I'm your
ICQ: 5107343 | main connection to the switchboard of souls.
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