oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu (David Phillip Oster) (08/11/87)
Lately, we have been seeing releases of new software that have useful
features removed compared with the previous version. Is this a trend?
Some examples:
ThunderScan:
1.) ThunderScan used to be able to digitize in the background, when run
under Switcher. The new manual says it doesn't do this any more.
2.) You used to be able to set an option in ThunderScan so that you
don't need the persnickety white stripe you are supposed to attach to
the left of the platen. (I've never seen a ThunderScan successfully
cross the seam in the white stripe, it always seems to botch one scan
line as it crosses the seam.) The option to ignore the stripe has been
removed, the stripe (and the digitizing glitch it causes) is now mandatory.
SoundWave:
The SoundWave audio digitization software from Impulse, replaces the
older SoundCap application. SoundCap included not only very nice
post-processing echo, reverb, and flanging digital sound effects, but
it also let you use the audio digitizer as a real time fourier
analyzer, and as a reverb and echo chamber. All of those functions
have been removed in the new version.
LightSpeed C:
LightSpeed C Version 2.11 creates programs that are not compatible
with System 2.0. They did this in order to be compatible with a future
version of A/UX, but I still have users using Lisas, and I don't want
to shaft them.
It bothers me that the new software is, in some ways, worse than the
old. It also bothers me that the publishers haven't explained why
they've cut the software down. Is it that, under certain conditions,
these functions had bugs, and rather than fix them, (or warn users
about which conditions might cause problems) they just remove those
functions?
--- David Phillip Oster --My Good News: "I'm a perfectionist."
Arpa: oster@dewey.soe.berkeley.edu --My Bad News: "I don't charge by the hour."
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