On Monday, June 7, 2004, at 04:30 PM, Matthew Hindson Fastmail Account wrote:
David Bailey wrote:A beta tester on another list has let drop that there more new features coming in 2005, which is currently in beta-testing. Nothing specific was said, but I just thought I would say they apparently are on schedule for the normal August release of the new version.
I know that for financial reasons, Makemusic has to get a new version out every year, but I wonder if this yearly cycle is in fact hurting deeper (necessary) innovation in Finale. For example, we all would no doubt would have a list of 20 fantastic proposed innovations and things requiring fixing in the current version, let alone undertake major structural reforms as have been suggested here recently. How realistic is it to expect such things to be incorporated and fixed when they need to be programmed, tested etc. etc. etc. within a one-year cycle?
I suppose I'm just hoping that Makemusic has some long-term vision for the product and where it's heading as well as shorter-term features and so forth. The multiple-style-sheet layout over a relational database model would be particularly nice to see.
Michael, I'd like to think that your post is a slightly less impassioned version of what I wrote earlier. In addition to asking them to fix what was broken before moving on, I just realized a whole block of customers who could benefit from a skipped year. Educational customers would be greatly aided by an earlier yearly release date (so they can get institutional purchase orders and receive the product before the school year begins), and I don't see that happening unless MakeMusic! takes a much-needed year off.
For MakeMusic!'s credibility, for our end-user satisfaction, and for the sake of non-rushed programming -- this year should be skipped. Didn't somebody say at some point that SmartMusic does better for them financially than Finale anyway? Would it really hurt them in the long run to take a few losses due to their horrendous mistake, fix it *well*, and then move on?
-- Brad Beyenhof [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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