Re: Drag-and-drop editing - PLEASE!

From: Bob Cozzi

Joe,
I agree that WDSC is a better tool than CodeStudio.
But in the areas that you mentioned, you've got it backwards--CodeStudio
is better.

I disagree entirely.

But that's irrelevant to WDSC. I no longer sell CodeStudio--its
free and I don't enhance it.

Excellent.  Let's leave it out of the discussion then.

A lack of understanding on your part is not a limitation on the tool's

part.

We'll this is only partly true. If it doesn't work the way the user
expects it
to, and the alternative is not obvious, intuitive or, documented well
(i.e.,
Ctrl+Backspace = Delete-Line) then it is a limitation in the product no
me.

Bob, as I've pointed out, using the standard Windows editing keystrokes
works for every single issue you've brought up.  Your complaint is that
there aren't enough keyboard shortcuts to do those things that are
absolutely intuitive using standard Windows actions.  Which is ironic, since
at the same time you complain that using the keyboard is a bad thing and you
must have drag and drop or else the editor is useless to you.

In my opinion, a company's most valuable IT asset is its programmers,

not

its programs

Sadly you are wrong about this

No I'm not, especially since I said it was my opinion.  But even so, I'm
right in this: Programmers are worth far more than the programs they write.
It is their inherent knowledge of the business that makes the programs work,
not the syntax of the code they write.

in that to most companies, their perception is
that their Programs are more valuable to the company than their
programmers, in
their minds their programs can be enhanced by throwing money at it
replacing it with another package.

Well, of course they think that because they're being fed this line of
pablum by consulting companies who make money off the turnover of employees
and charging for interfacing software that they didn't write.

Heck, the whole dea of interchangeable programmers is as flawed as the idea
of interchangeable software components.  It works fine as long as there are
no actual business requirements involved.

Certainly "our people are our most valuable asset" isn't believed any
longer, even it if it said. OutSourcing, lower salaries, little to no
bonuses, fewer staff increases, more staff decreases.

That will change in due time.  Read my earlier message on how the
out-sourced A/R contact basically told me to cancel my contract and hung up
on me rather than try to answer my question.

Well, when you find the bandwagon is safe enough to hop on, those of us

who
have been advocating it will welcome you. <smile>
And those of us who haven't jump3e, continue to wonder what why those of
you who did jump early continued to advocated having a Soccer Mom drive
an Indy Car while all she really wanted was something safe enough to get
the kids back and forth to school.

WDSC has been "safe" since version 6.0 (really since version 5.1.2).  It's
been stable and powerful.

It's just a little disappointing that you're threatening to throw out

the WDSC baby with the drag-and-drop bathwater.

You're confusing frustration with threats.
Metaphorically speaking, if you (not you Joe, but "people in general") are
thin-skinned you shouldn't be in the software development business.
If you "cry"
because "Bob Cozzi" said this or that feature sucked, well, you have other
issues besides user-interface design skills.

I'm not crying, Bob, nor is the WSC development team (for whom I most
assuredly do NOT speak!).  I'm simply holding you accountable to support
your statements.  It's pretty straightforward.  So far the only thing not in
the package that you've complained about is drag-and-drop.  Every thing else
is there, and yet still you complain. 

The biggest insult one can have from the community after building software
is for the community to remain silent, they say nothing and not buy into
the product. That silence can be deafening.

The community is far from silent, as is witnessed by this mailing list, and
dozens of conference and user group sessions and book sales and training
seminars and on and on.

The only one "silent" has been you, and your first foray into the pool is to
say that you're going to abandon the product if IBM doesn't add some
marginal feature that you can't live without. 

If the WDSC developers were thin-skinned (and heaven knows they aren't,
because they put up with me, but if they were) then this would certainly
seem a little insulting.  They've created a tool that is not only light
years beyond anything any of us have created, but in fact is arguably better
than any development tool out there, with the possible exception of Visual
Studio, and that's very much a neck-and-neck race.

Oh well, everybody is entitled to their own opinion.  I just though that
mine was a good counterpoint to yours.

Joe