Re: Channel 9 video: Visual C++ 10 is the new 6
Hi Joe,
While there is a lot to like about Office 2007 (especially how it shows you
inline things like font changes) I agree with your ribbon bar complaint.
My biggest complaint with VS 2008 is that some things just don't work
"sometimes". For example, two things in particular bug me:
1. If I want to switch the ID for two controls I can't have two named the
same thing (even temporarily) or it complains, but if I change ID_C1 to
ID_SOMETHING else then try to change ID_C2 to ID_C1 it still complains that
there is already a control ID_C1 even though there isn't any longer since I
renamed it to get rid of the other annoying "make sure I don't screw up"
message. I could see complaining about something like this at compile time,
but doing these checks while editing drives me nuts.
2. If I try to add a new dialog class to an already existing file it will
ask if I want to merge the class into that file, then take about 40 seconds
then say it had to close down the IDE and lose all my changes since the last
time I saved or compiled. I went back to adding things by hand.
These are both listed as bugs, but I'm hoping the next version at least will
focus on making what is there work reliably. I can work around the design,
but I can't work around wondering if I'll lose my changes if I don't save
after every few keystrokes.
Tom
"Joseph M. Newcomer" <newcomer@flounder.com> wrote in message
news:kg4ei4h0u292h2fk497724bg3s0jaerfma@4ax.com...
The "jumped the shark" analogy is a really good one. There's such a
compulsion to do
something "new" that nobody seems to understand that "working well" is the
most important
criterion. "Working well" means that it doesn't crash for undefined and
indeterminate
reasons two or three times an hour, that it optimizes programmer
productivity (not taking
1min to do "Add Variable"), that it doesn't spontaneously keep switching
from what I'm
working on to what it thinks I should be working on (every "Add and Edit"
button must be
accompanied by an "Add" button that has nothing to do with editing), and
so on. What we
have now are "visions" of how something thinks a cool interface should
look without any
consideration to whether or not the coolness of the interface in any way
actually improves
the experience, or just satisfies the ego of its designer. Yes, I think
they jumped the
shark. VS 2002-2008 are one instance, Office is another. Web-based
discussion forums vs.
NNTP newsgroups is yet another. Coolness and adherence to religious
principles (".NET is
cool") trump usability.
It only proves that software *has to* evolve, because there is no evidence
of "intelligent
design" at work.
Our sincere hope is that 10 will reverse this trend and show that someone
actually
understands the software development process.