On 13/01/2011 19:33, Olin Lathrop wrote:
> Oli Glaser wrote:
>> Hang on, I'm puzzled as to exactly what you are saying here - if a
>> piece of software makes a good first impression is that a bad thing?
> Not by itself, but if it's a complicated piece of software and it tries t=
o
> pretend everything is all-so-easy and you don't have to learn anything, t=
hen
> yes, that can be bad.  That usually means more effort went into making it
> look good than actually being good.  The corrolary is they think you're a
> moron and will buy a large complicated piece of software on first impress=
ion
> rather than careful evaluation.  Unfortunately sometimes they're right, s=
o
> they loose sales to well funded morons.

Agreed, I thought this was what you were getting at - I've seen far too=20
much software of this sort, and indeed the fact it's all hype and no=20
substance often only encourages the "less knowledgeable" to buy it.
Occasionally a company gets both "bits" right though, and I think Altium=20
is probably a reasonable example of this.

> Every company that sells a complex product falls into this, or feels they
> are drawn into it, to some extent.  Look at Microchip hyping how a PIC 16
> only has 35 (or whatever) instructions, like the number of instructions i=
s
> somehow supposed to matter, and that when it does less is actually more.
> The only possible way that could matter is the first day someone is writi=
ng
> PIC code.  After that it becomes either irrelvant or a detriment.  Note t=
hat
> they stopped hyping that for the 24 bit core where they suddenly decided =
a
> lot of instructions made sense.
>
> And then there's that really ridiculous Visual Device Initializer.  "Call=
ing
> all morons.  Just step up here and clickety click your way to a PIC proje=
ct.
> No thought, real engineering, or that silly old fashioned knowing what
> you're doing required."

:-) - not seen it, but I can guess.. (the overused "Visual" term gives a=20
clue - instant project, just add water..)
I pretty much agree with all this too - to put it as plainly as=20
possible, all the hype is easy to get distracted by, and none of these=20
things help much without some knowledge to go with it.

--=20
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