Hi Folks,
I've been reading the comments, both good and bad, about our beta process.
I must admit that I prefer the complimentary ones but we also appreciate the
criticism as it helps us refine the way we will do things in the future. I
wanted to take this opportunity to thank the people on this list for the
outstanding level of commitment they have shown to JFW and to helping us
improve the product over the past month.
The first build which went out to the public was 3.31.22. This was still
pretty buggy but fairly stable. the second public release, 3.31.33, RC1,
contained over 200 bug fixes, most of which were reported either on this
list or to [EMAIL PROTECTED] The final version, 3.31.35, had numerous
fixes to things which remained in RC1.
Once we post an item as a release candidate, it becomes difficult for us to
make major changes. A single "fix" to one problem may cause a number of
other things to break. Every change made late in the process is dangerous
as the potential problems it may cause could often outnumber the benefits
gained from the repair.
We decided that all that would be fixed after RC2 went out would be "show
stoppers" - bugs which caused reproducible crashes or installation
impossibilities. These were the must fixes and none were reported and
confirmed.
At last count, there were over 4000 downloads of 3.31. This is a fairly
huge test bed. RC2 had few bugs reported (in relation to the number of
people using it) and none of the reports were show stoppers.
JFW still has a number of anomalies. Certainly, the issue with some SSIL
devices will be addressed and posted as soon as we can get it fixed and
tested. We will probably post a patch in a few weeks with fixes to a number
of scripts and a handful of other bugs fixed. With that said, I will add
that JFW 3.31 is the most stable version we've ever shipped and, in my
opinion, the best screen reader ever made.
All of we users have our own favorite bugs. I know of a few small items
which annoy me but didn't make the criteria of a show stopper. Ted reminded
me yesterday of a little one he had reported a few weeks back that didn't
make it into the final release. Neither of our items were reported by more
than a couple of others through this process so their priority was lowered.
We did, however, fix nearly all of the issues reported by many people.
Issues that effect the largest number of users hit the top of our list and
are the first to be remedied.
We also received a number of suggestions about the product during the beta
process. All of these have been logged into the database and will be
considered for a future version of JFW. Part of being in beta means that
all of the features have been added to the product and that we're looking to
get the kinks ironed out. Adding new features to a product during the beta
cycle is the software engineering equivalent of suicide. Some users might
be pleased to see their idea incorporated into the product but those who
found the bugs caused by last minute additions would be displeased.
Thanks again! I look forward to continued correspondence with the folks on
this list. I will remain subscribed and reading the posts. If you really
want to get my attention, however, send emails directly to me. I get so
much email per day that I rarely have time to do more than scan so I will
miss a lot of things.
cdh
Chris Hofstader
Development Manager
Henter-Joyce, Inc.
(727) 803-8000
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Grant Downey
Sent: Friday, October 15, 1999 5:06 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Do people want public betas?
The public beta project has worked very well from what I can see. It
appears to me that as complex as the JFW software has to be to work with so
many different types of programs plus volatile Windows 95, 98 and 2,000
operating systems it is next to impossible to release perfect software to
satisfy each individual user. Henter-Joyce has gone out of their way to be
responsive to reported problems and I have seen dramatic improvements in the
speed, reliability and stability from JFW 3.3 to 3.31. If one doesn't like
a certain function, hotkey, or the way a function performs, scripts can be
written as solutions.
This is an on-going process and each subsequent release of JFW brings fixes,
new innovations and solutions. I believe that JFW 3.31 is a blockbuster
release that changes dramatically for the better access to Windows. This is
due to the fine work of HJ staff, developers and management plus the public
beta project. Constructive suggestions and criticism are very important
parts of the process as well. The keyword here is constructive! It is my
hope that the public beta project is continued in each new release of JFW.
If you look at any commercial application released it will have some
problems operating on an individuals computer performing certain functions.
JFW has to be able to operate smoothly with hundreds of standard and
non-standard programs, computers, system configurations and video cards.
That is one monumental task. Cheers to Henter-Joyce for much improvement
and great work. Grant
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Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
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Visit the jfw ml web page: http://jfw.cjb.net
