Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
- Subject: Re: [rant] "Never mind the quality, feel the width!"
- From: has <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 02 Dec 2014 03:16:12 +0000
Shane Stanley wrote:
> Just a reminder that if you want to let Apple know how useful AS is,
as opposed to telling those of us who already know, logging lots of bug
reports and requests is the way to make Apple people other than the AS
team aware that there are users out there. Let them feel the width.
<http://bugreport.apple.com>
Horse puckey.
First, filing lots of bug reports just tells Apple that the AppleScript
stack is full of bugs. Although extremely doable, this may not be an
argument entirely in its favor.
Second, if the AppleScript team are that much in need of fresh bug
reports, they need only pay attention to what users are already saying.
I've gotten many bug reports this way, not just where users could see my
code was obviously defective but also cases where they didn't know what
was broken or were just struggling to understand how to use it. Often
they'd just be asking around on forums for help and advice, or just
talking about it on their blog, so doing regular web searches and
providing direct support was great for discovering defects that'd
otherwise never be recognized or reported as such.
Third, since a good percentage of non-trivial defects were intentionally
introduced by the AppleScript team themselves, color me skeptical that
those would get fixed anyway as it'd require 1. an expert clue-sticking
of the AS team (which the rest of Apple is even less qualified to
deliver), and 2. breaking backwards compatibility with users' existing
code (what little there is) while trying to pretend this is not a
significant loss of face for them.
...
Bug reports are what users provide when developers have already
demonstrated reasonable understanding and care, and their solution is
already most of the way there with just the odd obscure glitch or
accidental slip to fix up. That is NOT the case here. I stopped
reporting individual JXA defects once I realized that its devs didn't
understand or didn't care what these defects were, or simply refused to
accept that they'd thoroughly screwed up.
The time it'd have taken me to identify and write up *every single
issue* in painstakingly comprehensive detail was ludicrous to the point
where it'd be far quicker just to write a whole new implementation from
scratch. Which, luckily enough, I've just spent the last 10 years
learning how to do correctly. So I did that, and send them a nearly
completed AE+OSA code patch for JXA well before 10.10 shipped. Response?
Not so much as a "thanks but no thanks". And the JXA that's now shipped
is a sack of shit.
So it's not a code problem, it's a people problem. And there's no
"PEBKAC" category on Radar, so screw filing any more bug reports on
_anything_, except the very small number of issues that directly impact
my ability to do my own work. But I daresay we'll revisit this topic
when 10.11 ships, so enough on that for now.
...
Getting back on track... you know what *really* tells Apple there are
users out there? Actual users out there! Bums on seats is what counts;
which in this case means lots of application developers adding
scriptability to their apps, and lots and lots of users scripting those
apps. Plus all of the associated activities that signal a thriving,
growing customer base: new articles, books, tools, Twitter buzz, forum
activity, and so on. Please now Google "JavaScript for Automation"
activity in the last month - especially user help requests- and tell me
what you think its take-home message to its intended audience really is.
I'll wait.
has
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