Steve Kalkwarf <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I'm not singling out Rhet, but there are several ideas embodied in this > paragraph that bear comment: > >> If someone from BareBones does pipe in, it's usually to say "We're >> never going to add that feature. See previous post..." This compares >> poorly to several other indie-Mac software lists I'm on (such as the >> forum for Leap and Yep, both excellent applications: >> http://www.ironicsoftware.com/) where the developer is happy to get >> feedback on what users actually want and participates in the dialogue. > > Let me start off by saying no matter what I, or another Bare Bones > representative says, a large number of people will be unhappy. For years > we said "Thanks for the feedback, and we'll consider adding this > functionality". Then, email every time we shipped an update we'd get a > "reminder" email, asking why the feature wasn't in that version. Other > people waited and waited for the feature to arrive, but it wasn't going > to. I thought that was unfair. > > Now, if a feature request has a known disposition, we generally share > that answer. Nested folders? No. If you _have_ to have that feature, you > will be better off elsewhere. Does this compare "poorly" with other > companies? I don't know. I prefer the honest answer, whether it makes > people happy or not. > > Another assumption (again, not picking on Rhet) is that implementing > every feature request is a good idea. If you take a step back and look > at the types of requests people make, with rare exception (nested > folders, smart collections, better tag management) they are particular > to the requester's existing workflow. The "one feature I have to have" > is not the one feature you have to have, or Charlie has to have, or > probably more than a couple people have to have. > > The implied assumption that tends to go along with almost any request is > that adding feature X doesn't increase the complexity of Yojimbo. That > is untrue.
[...] Steve, That's a good reply and I agree with most of what you wrote. One thing I fail to understand, though, is why you refuse to fix minor things, which are really omissions or bugs. Things that really matter to some people and that absolutely do not increase the complexity of the application. I took the time and effort to write down my suggestions about a year ago (see http://www.listsearch.com/Yojimbo/Message/index.lasso?3611&-session=listsearch:55DE58130c4200D374MPR2916775) I did this because you were encouraging suggestions. So far, 100% of my suggestions have been ignored. Now, I can live without the advanced feature requests (tag cloud like in Yep), but why oh why do you ignore the keyboard navigation issues? As a reminder, here is what I wrote: First, I have a few suggestions related to using Yojimbo with the keyboard. I believe the program should be fully usable without a mouse. This is especially important if Yojimbo is brought up using the F6 key (search within Yojimbo), because if I brought the program up using a key I probably want to use the keyboard to access information within it as well. As it is now, I have to reach for the mouse. For an excellent example of a program usable without a mouse see the Vienna RSS reader, in particular observe how cursor keys and TAB behave there. TAB order: When the focus is in the collections panel, pressing tab should take me to the list of documents, not to the little buttons below the collections panel. From the search box pressing TAB should take me to the list of documents found, not to the list of collections. Next TAB should go to the title, then tags, then content (NOT to the rarely used "Encrypt" button!) Pressing Return after entering something in the search box should also display the results and take me to the first result. When creating new documents using the little dialog box in the corner of the screen, I don't want to TAB over the little arrow button next to the "Name", I want to go straight to tags and then the text. Now, a year and several Yojimbo versions later, we still have the same TAB order issues (BTW, they also apply to the quick entry panel). You can't reasonably argue that they are reasonable or that changing the TAB order makes Yojimbo more difficult to use. I also believe these changes are not difficult to implement. I dare you to try using Yojimbo without a mouse. Put a quarter in a coin box every time you have to reach for the mouse to do something or every time an extra key press is needed. See how much money ends up in the box. --J. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list <yojimbo-talk@barebones.com>. To unsubscribe, send mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> List archives: <http://www.listsearch.com/yojimbotalk.lasso> Have a feature request, or not sure if the software's working correctly? Please send mail to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
