On 22 Sep 2007 at 12:42, dc wrote: > My feeling is that MM never provided backwards compatibility > because they thought this would force users to upgrade.
As a working programmer myself, I see it completely differently. First off, MM is on a yearly release schedule, whereas Sibelius is not. That's the biggest difference right there. Thus, Finale versions tend to not be such major changes as Sibelius. Secondly, because of never promising backward compatibility, MM can change the file format without restriction, something that is not as simple when you are required to maintain compatibility with old file formats. This means that MM can introduce features in a yearly release that are based in major re-engineering of parts of the file format without having to then spend half the year writing the converters for the old file formats. All that said, if Finale were on a release schedule like Sibelius, then my bet is they'd have backward compatibility. But that's only a guess. I definitely believe that the problems with Finale are mostly due to the insistence on yearly releases. I vote with my pocketbook on that by skipping most upgrades (I'm still on WinFin2K3, having used only 2.01, 3.52 and 97 before it). -- David W. Fenton http://dfenton.com David Fenton Associates http://dfenton.com/DFA/ _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list Finale@shsu.edu http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
