Forums

by Carl Ranson >> Wed, 2 Feb 2000 20:45:13 GMT

Hi All,

I have a number of ideas for improving the Jade experience - especially in the areas of the development environment's user interface.

I would be interested in discussing usability issues in a public newsgroup, and think it could be a valuable "breeding ground" for ideas to improve the product.

I propose a new newsgroup be added for this. Can we have a show of hands for interested in such a newsgroup, please?

Regards,
CR

by Craig Shearer >> Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:03:58 GMT

Hi Carl...

Yeah, I've got about a million ideas too... but how public do you want to make this newsgroup? Are you talking about a group that was publicly available, say on an XTRA newsfeed?

Also, what would be the outcome of this group? Surely we'd have to get some committment from the plant that they would actually look at suggestions regarding any radical changes to JADE's IDE otherwise it'd be a waste of time (at least until there are hooks in JADE that would allow you to write your own IDE - then you can do what you like!).

Craig.

by Carl Ranson >> Wed, 2 Feb 2000 22:33:36 GMT

Hi Carl...

Yeah, I've got about a million ideas too... but how public do you want to make this newsgroup? Are you talking about a group that was publicly available, say on an XTRA newsfeed?

Nah, I was just meaning a group on this news server.

Also, what would be the outcome of this group? Surely we'd have to get some committment from the plant that they would actually look at suggestions regarding any radical changes to JADE's IDE otherwise it'd be a waste of time (at least until there are hooks in JADE that would allow you to write your own IDE - then you can do what you like!).

I would be somwhat disappointed if the plant wern't interested in this. My experience is that a lot of developers really enjoy the product but can see a number of ways to improve it, some of which are trivial (and frustrating). Candinal should view it as encouraging that much of the user community has such a high "buy in" on the product that they are willing to invest so much time and energy into making the product better.

I'm trying to promote debate on the posibilities, hopefully the best suggestions will survive and be noticed. The plant wouldn't have to promise to implement anything suggest, only be prepared to pay attention to their customers, which is good business sense.

Having said that, the plant have to optimise the time (which is limited) spent on new features. I think having a forum to discuss features will help with this.

Regards,
CR

by Craig Shearer >> Wed, 2 Feb 2000 23:15:42 GMT

Well in that case, I'd certainly second having a newsgroup devoted to discussing new suggestions.

Craig.

by Dean Cooper >> Thu, 3 Feb 2000 4:32:35 GMT

This sounds like a good idea, so there is now a new group available:

jade_feature_discussion

If you're using Outlook Express, right click your Jade News server icon, select Newsgroups, and click Reset List. The new group should appear in the list for you to subscribe to.

Craig Shearer wrote...

Also, what would be the outcome of this group? Surely we'd have to get some commitment from the plant that they would actually look at suggestions regarding any radical changes to JADE's IDE otherwise
it'd be a waste of time

Us plant people will keep an eye on this group and participate when appropriate, like we do for the other groups.

Carl Ranson wrote...

The plant wouldn't have to promise to implement anything suggest, only be prepared to pay attention to their customers

Establishing this group *does not* indicate any commitment on our part to implement what is discussed (there could be a tidal wave of suggestions here! But of course if particular suggestions are obviously popular across many users, that is very helpful to us in deciding what new features/changes we do implement.

This group *does not* replace the official channel for new feature suggestions, but I think that discussions here will support the process. Often we get new feature suggestions in isolation (ie: tell us what you're trying to do, not how to fix it); this news group could provide some context. Often we get new feature suggestions from different people that are contradictory. Many new feature suggestions fall into the "pet peeve" category, others are somebody's "feature du jour". What we're really interested in are those suggestions that have broad appeal and will bring usability/productivity benefits to many users. If such ideas are discovered in this group, official NFS's should be opened for them.

Go for it...

Dean.