AuL> It will probably be worth it *if* tool productivity continues to improve AuL> and serious bugs become an endangered species. .... AuL> but it was priced so that most any serious designer could afford it.
This is exactly the position I find myself in. I bought in "cheap" with the version 3.x series, and have upgraded all along the way through 98, 99, 99SE. I will now have a very difficult decision to make. In my view Protel has "raised the bar" with ATS, a yearly support fee, and the higher prices. While I might have been willing to dismiss those "serious bugs" in past products, with their lower product costs, lower upgrade fees, and with the free service packs which were available, those days now seem to be over. Bugs which I might have been "willing to live with" in the past, I will no longer be willing to live with. So, it is not just the bar that has been raised here, but my expectations have been as well. I understand that any significant program will have bugs, so I don't expect them all to be gone. But the most serious ones, they had better be. No GPF's, Page Faults, Assertion Errors, or other major crashes like that are going to be acceptable to me now. None. Zero. Nada. No possible corruption of work. And the new router, that had better rock too. And I *will* need to see *proof* in the way of a working demo first. If I can get that much I *may* be happy (If ATS "went away", I would be happy), otherwise I've got much better uses for *my* $2K.. Altium/Protel needs to do an *above average* and very thorough job in it's beta test program of DXP this time. As you see, my standards are higher now. ---Phil * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/proteledaforum@techservinc.com * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
