<snip>
> as to the 3D thing, it is absolutely worthless (as is the consensus
> here) but nonetheless it probably helps sell copies and so will the
> quote thing
> such is life today
>
> Dennis Saputelli
Shareholders are more likely to be assured if they are informed that new
releases of software also contain new features, as opposed to just fixes for
bugs in the previous versions. That said, it would be smarter for new
features to match the requests of users, rather than providing what Protel
might think that users are looking for. That way, not only are the
shareholders going to be kept happy, but the users as well (and their
bosses, in the event that they are the ones forking out for the upgrade
costs), so resulting in a win-win situation.
However, Protel have been providing a number of features which users have
requested, and I suspect that many (though probably not all) of the features
which will be newly introduced in the next major version will be welcomed by
its users. (I am not privy to any of the details, so it is possible that my
assessment could be wrong. But the evolution of Protel 99 SE suggests the
envisaged outcome.) Ultimately, as users, it is up to us to keep providing
feedback to Protel as to how their application should evolve. That way, we
can maximise the proportion of truly useful improvements, and minimise the
proportion of unwanted/unhelpful novelties.
Re-visiting a thread of mine from last week, I commented on how it would be
desirable for Power Plane layers to support any combination of polygons
which is topologically kosher. At the time, my assessment was that
implementing this was easier said than done. However, I have since purchased
the May 2001 issue of "Dr Dobbs Journal", which has an article on
implementing the "convex hull" algorithm. (If you have a (finite) set of
points (in two dimensions), what is the ("minimal") boundary (of a polygon)
that encloses *all* of those points, and in such a way that any line that
joins *any pair of these points* resides entirely within this?)
Amongst other things, this article describes how it is possible to determine
whether a given point is *inside* a given polygon, *outside* this, or
sitting on the polygon's boundary. And presumably Protel's software
*presently* uses this (vector cross-product) technique (or similar) to
determine what sort of connection is made between each (through-hole) pad
(or via) and each (enabled) Power Plane layer. As such, my updated
assessment is that adding the feature of supporting a polygon residing
*entirely* within another is still not totally straightforward, but that
said, it is nowhere near as difficult as what I previously envisaged.
If other applications currently support any topologically kosher combination
of polygons on Power Plane layers, then Protel should strive to do so as
well. And if no other applications do so yet, then Protel could beat them to
doing so. The "fly in the ointment" is that this is not something which
share-holders will necessarily find "sexy", because, amongst other things,
it probably can't be described in a snappy "sound bite", and it is not
something that is necessarily otherwise easily possible to describe to those
with a limited mathematical comprehension. ("This new version now supports
fully nested polygons on the Power Plane layers, which facilitates the
design of Printed Circuit Boards with demanding requirements at radio
frequencies." Could such a description be improved upon for the benefit of
shareholders?)
If we can think of ways to describe desirable enhancements in a manner which
can be understood and appreciated by shareholders, we can increase the
probability of getting these enhancements implemented. So everyone should
try to think about this aspect, as well, whenever possible enhancements are
suggested...
Regards,
Geoff Harland.
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