Grrr…

Hulk I just hate it when software designed to save you countless hours of development work just don’t work out of the box. Especially when you pay good money for it. I’ve come to expect a few hiccups here and there with open source software. But purchasing an expensive rich editing component from a leading vendor, performing a fresh install, and having buttons popup javascript alert boxes with debug information is inexcusable. Along with some other features just plain not working.

It just makes me angry! And you don’ want to see me when I’m angry! Grrr…

Comments

6 responses

The Lone Sysadmin • August 16th, 2005
See, now this isn't drivel. :-) I totally agree with you on this. If you're going to bother writing something and selling it, at least go all the way and test it a little on things that aren't your customer's machines. Instant buyer's remorse is achieved when the product just doesn't work out of the box, especially when the demo version worked great.

You should actually mention the product you're fighting with, so the rest of us know to look out for it.

bonna • August 16th, 2005
yeah i agree, tell us who that vendor is.

As long as you stick to the facts, and it seems like you do, then you do no wrong, your actually helping them to get rid of the bugs.

Some companies do deliver bad components, I had my share of bad experiences with the larger companies not delivering what they should.

One example on the top of my head:

I needed a component to print the contents of TrueDBGrid (C1), so I went for the reporting tool also from Component One.

(The API was very simple compared to Crystal reports)

You could create a preview with it, what I found very usefull.

The only thing is that if you needed to print or preview more than 5 or 10 pages it took ages and took all cpu to render.

They also include pesky popup "Trial version" messages which already popup up twice at a customer of ours, while our development version worked just fine. I am probably to blame for these popups, but I NEVER have that problem with any of our other components from other vendors.

For the Horde :)

Haacked • August 16th, 2005
I'm hesitant to name names, because at the same time, I know how easy it is to make a dumb mistake. The company in question was very gracious. Apparently they had already caught the problem and released an updated version soon after. I just happened to download it in the small window where they had accidentally left some debug code in there.

It wasn't even their main product. It's a provider to enable the main rich text editor work in DotNetNuke. I don't want to name names, but it's a totally RAD text editor. ;)

Marty Thompson • August 17th, 2005
I think I know which company you are referring to, as we use a pretty RAD text editor too ;)

Although, we haven't had a problem with any of the company's products, so I wouldn't discount the quality of their products too much.

Haacked • August 17th, 2005
Exactly! It just happened to be frustrating trying to get work done at 9 in the evening, but overall, the quality of the product is fantastic. Even the best make mistakes. We're human.

bonna • August 17th, 2005
Hehe.

That editor company you mentioned happens to be my favorite control provider! :)

They have excellent support and release a lot of updates/hotfixes.

They also take suggestions, to their - and our - benefit.

And that editor is one of the best full featured editors I've come across so far... and i've seen a few.

The only that isn't perfect yet IMHO is the Radmenu control. The html output is huge, for a simple dropdown menu with non of the fancy features enabled. I'd still recommend it though ;).

For the Horde!