Hello Alexander, Thursday, June 30, 2005, 8:58:28 AM, you wrote: > However, I do know that no other email client that I know of is as > complex as TB (filtering system, templates, macros, etc. etc.), and > we should be careful with comments about the code's complexity and > the programmers ability to maintain it; such statements may be made > out of frustration, or in a hurry, and thus be short-sighted.
Agreed, and speaking as a programmer who is developing enterprise level applications, writing an application is easy (relatively speaking). It's when you have to go back and add functionality that things get messy. If I had to chose the single largest stumbling block for me as a programmer it would, without a doubt, be scope creep. If you look at it, that's exactly what RITLabs and every developer who is putting out applications is dealing with. Some new functionality is needed and you have to figure out how to incorporate it in without breaking something else. Sometimes it's easy, oftentimes it's not. For the non-programmers, think of it this way. You've just built a house and love it, but the wife decides she wants a sink in the downstairs living room. If you're lucky, maybe where she wants it is just opposite the wall of the downstairs bathroom and you only have to cut a small hole to run a pipe through for the water, and the drainage will tie into the existing sink drain in the bathroom. If you're semi-lucky, she wants it on the exterior wall and you can do most of the new piping on the outside of the house. If you're unlucky, it'll be on an interior wall in which you'll have to rip out a considerable piece of to route piping. I've heard some people say that RITLabs priorities are all screwed up with regard to which bugs get fixed first. Using the previous analogy, let's say in addition to the sink, she says one of the living room pictures is hanging too low. It'll take you two minutes to fix the picture by nailing it up four inches higher, and will make her nice and happy. She still wants her sink (or in the case of a bug, she wants the dripping faucet of that sink fixed), but you're going to need a weekend to do it. I haven't always agreed with RITLabs direction on some things, but it is their product and they'll have to lie in whatever bed they make. You can please some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time, but never all of the people all of the time. Hey.. Where'd that soapbox come from? <grin> -- __ ____ ____ ____ TBUDL/BETA/DEV/TECH Lists Moderator / PGP 0x6C0AB16B ( ) ( ___)(_ _)( ___) TBUDP Wiki Site: http://www.PCWize.com/thebat/tbudp )(__ )__) _)(_ )__) Roguemoticons & Smileys: http://PCWize.com/thebat (____)(____)(____)(__) PHP Tutorials and snippets: http://www.DevTek.org ________________________________________________________ Current beta is 3.5.33 | 'Using TBBETA' information: http://www.silverstones.com/thebat/TBUDLInfo.html IMPORTANT: To register as a Beta tester, use this link first - http://www.ritlabs.com/en/partners/testers/
