On 16 juin 2011, at 07:02, Nordquist, Jeff wrote:
[...]
They are software developers just like everyone on this list (with perhaps the most challenging customer base of any software company). They've given us a reasonably simple bug reporting outlet (is it perfect? Of course not. Is yours?). They're tremendously
responsive,
No they are not. Here and in all channels I know about, I have asked a very simple question that could be answered by a simple Yes/No, that has never been answered:
"Was Apple decision to adopt the one-window paradigm backed up by user testing?"
Simple, it's either "Yes" or "No".
Of course, if it's yes, additional information about the set up of the user testing and the statistical significance of the result would be interesting. Yes I could not even get the Yes/No answer.
Please note that I do not blame the individuals. I thank them for their very useful contributions here and elsewhere. I believe if they don't answer such questions, it's because they are not authorized to do so. The blame is with Apple, and those Apple
employees higher up the hierarchy who only know about third party developers because they know somebody who knows somebody who knows somebody who has met one once.
I could provide a number of other examples, but to me, Apple is all but responsive about its developer tools. It's a bit sink, a black hole where you feed information never to be seen or heard of again, /dev/null. Starting with Bug Reporter, that I find
I use less and less, out of discouragement: why bother?
professional and helpful on these forums. The forums are for questions and constructive suggestions. I've sat back and silently watched too many of these Xcode 4 threads get out of hand with personal affronts and unprofessional whining. Let's put ourselves
in the shoes of the Xcode development team and ask, "How would we want our customers to give us feedback?" If the answer is, "By comparing my team and the fruits of my probably-way-more-than-8-hours-a-day-of-hard-work to a Dilbert cartoon", then I'd
hate to be moderating your mailing lists. :)
If Dilbert comparison show up, that's a signal. A signal that Apple had better read and act upon. A signal of frustration. The feeling that as far as we are concerned, we believe that Apple doesn't care.
The signals that Apple gives back in return are very very bad. To the point that, when asked, I have now started to qualify Xcode 4.02 as abandonware.
Regarding the windowing situation, what those of us who are suffering from this do resent, is that:
- this is a regression from what was possible
- no justification was ever given for the regression
- no explanation we gave of why this is bad was ever acknowledged by Apple, not even dissented with, much less accepted.
- no beginning of an answer has been given as to whether we can expect the situation to be fixed some day or not.
I have been an Apple developer since 1978, a Mac developer since 1983, proudly. To me Apple stands for "doing the right thing" and "details matter". Xcode 4 is a total let down, its other welcome improvements notwithstanding. No wonder that comparisons
with Microsoft start to appear.
Jean-Denis
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