Hi Bruce On Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 10:04 AM, Bruce <bru...@zwave.net> wrote:
> > > P.S. Minor gripe - I wish that Tomasz would release 5.30 soon. It will have > a number of useful, and even necessary, features from the Beta's, and it is > easier and more acceptable to tell user's of code to upgrade to the latest > release. > > > There's no question that providing support can be easier when a new version with more features is available. I often see situations where a user has trouble, and the response is, when the user's version is dated, that the problem reported was fixed on this date in this new version, so your fix is to upgrade to the latest stable version. But, for development tools, that can carry a cost for users in terms of having to refactor some of their code. I have seen situations where, for a certain product, the cost of that refactoring a project turned out to be greater than simply sticking with the older version and writing a little extra code to work around the problems encountered with that product. I would therefore use that experience to qualify my assessment of the acceptability or preferability of one answer vs. another. However, I develop software and can say that, from the developer's perspective, the best response for when a new version will be released is "when it is ready." I would expect that if Tomasz has not released this new version, there is probably a good reason. The whole purpose of beta testing is to gain the assistance of a population of users to identify issues that the developers need to address. And it sometimes happens that an issue that seemed simple at first glance turns out to be quite complicated to fix correctly. I would therefore recast your "minor gripe" as a "hope that he can quickly address any remaining issues so it can be released soon" along with expression of gratitude for his efforts. Just a thought from the perspective of a software developer who tends to be paranoid about the quality of his own code, especially when the quality of the software can affect environmental risk, health risk or financial risk. I don't release software unless I can prove to myself that it is correct! Yes, my software tends to be focussed on the assessment and management of risk in a number of disciplines. Cheers, Ted
