Re: Failure to document significant changes ...
This WebDNA talk-list message is from 2000
It keeps the original formatting.
numero = 34117
interpreted = N
texte = >How are they supposed to document issues when no one >tells them about them?They are 100% responsible for changing the parser. The changes they made were done specifically to make the space character into a delimiter instead of allowing it as a field name or parameter name character.In other words, they knew about this all along, they did not need me or anyone else to tell them about it. Here is my evidence as quoted from am email posted to this list from SM Tech Support: In order to accommodate the new XML-style parser (which by definition does not allow spaces in any parameter names), the parser has been changed to treat spaces as delimiters just like other languages do. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.Right here, they claim that the actual reason for changing the parser was SPECIFICALLY to treat spaces as delimiters just like other languages do. So ... if they did this *specifically* to change webcat's behavior when it comes to space characters, why did they fail to tell us about this change?Was it that they simply could not be bothered to warn us? Or was it that they really don't care what problems they cause for us by failing to inform us of significant changes like this? Or were they simply trying to hide it from us? >A new version will always break some feature that >someone was relying on.That's not the issue here.The issue is that SM failed to inform us of this change, even though they knew about it all along. They made a conscious effort to change the parser for the specific purpose of eliminating the space character as a viable character in field and parameter names ...... and that means they *should have* made a conscious effort to warn us of how our existing websites might be affected by the new parser. But they did not. >If you have known about this problem for some >time, it is YOUR FAULT that it is not documented, not Smith Micro's.I had nothing to do with this parser change, nor do I work for SM -- so there's no way I can possibly be responsible for their failure to document this change.But let's say for a moment that I *did* work for SM and that I was *personally* responsible for this decision to change the parser. Here's what I would have done in order to make sure my existing customers would not get pissed off at me for screwing up their pre-existing sites:1- I would have reported the parser change on the beta list. In this report, I would have made it perfectly clear that the new parser *cannot* handle spaces in field and parameter names like the old parser used to.2- I would have posted a notice like the following on the beta list, and on WebDNA-Talk, and in the HTML docs, and in the Read Me file -- and in a special new file called Upgrade Warnings which I would distribute with version 4 when it was released: Pre-existing webcat sites that use space characters in field and/or parameter names will NOT work with webcat 4! You must eliminate all space characters in field and parameter names before your existing sites will function properly with webcat 4.3- I would fix the HTML docs and .pdf files to reflect the fact that field names and parameter names can no longer have space characters in them like they always used to. In fact, I would publish a comprehensive list of acceptable field and parameter name characters -- in the docs and .pdf's -- so this would never create any new problems for ANY existing customer. ================================ Kenneth Grome, WebDNA Consultant 808-737-6499 http://webdna.net ================================------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list
. To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://search.smithmicro.com/
Associated Messages, from the most recent to the oldest:
>How are they supposed to document issues when no one >tells them about them?They are 100% responsible for changing the parser. The changes they made were done specifically to make the space character into a delimiter instead of allowing it as a field name or parameter name character.In other words, they knew about this all along, they did not need me or anyone else to tell them about it. Here is my evidence as quoted from am email posted to this list from SM Tech Support: In order to accommodate the new XML-style parser (which by definition does not allow spaces in any parameter names), the parser has been changed to treat spaces as delimiters just like other languages do. Sorry for any confusion this may have caused.Right here, they claim that the actual reason for changing the parser was SPECIFICALLY to treat spaces as delimiters just like other languages do. So ... if they did this *specifically* to change webcat's behavior when it comes to space characters, why did they fail to tell us about this change?Was it that they simply could not be bothered to warn us? Or was it that they really don't care what problems they cause for us by failing to inform us of significant changes like this? Or were they simply trying to hide it from us? >A new version will always break some feature that >someone was relying on.That's not the issue here.The issue is that SM failed to inform us of this change, even though they knew about it all along. They made a conscious effort to change the parser for the specific purpose of eliminating the space character as a viable character in field and parameter names ...... and that means they *should have* made a conscious effort to warn us of how our existing websites might be affected by the new parser. But they did not. >If you have known about this problem for some >time, it is YOUR FAULT that it is not documented, not Smith Micro's.I had nothing to do with this parser change, nor do I work for SM -- so there's no way I can possibly be responsible for their failure to document this change.But let's say for a moment that I *did* work for SM and that I was *personally* responsible for this decision to change the parser. Here's what I would have done in order to make sure my existing customers would not get pissed off at me for screwing up their pre-existing sites:1- I would have reported the parser change on the beta list. In this report, I would have made it perfectly clear that the new parser *cannot* handle spaces in field and parameter names like the old parser used to.2- I would have posted a notice like the following on the beta list, and on WebDNA-Talk, and in the HTML docs, and in the Read Me file -- and in a special new file called Upgrade Warnings which I would distribute with version 4 when it was released: Pre-existing webcat sites that use space characters in field and/or parameter names will NOT work with webcat 4! You must eliminate all space characters in field and parameter names before your existing sites will function properly with webcat 4.3- I would fix the HTML docs and .pdf files to reflect the fact that field names and parameter names can no longer have space characters in them like they always used to. In fact, I would publish a comprehensive list of acceptable field and parameter name characters -- in the docs and .pdf's -- so this would never create any new problems for ANY existing customer. ================================ Kenneth Grome, WebDNA Consultant 808-737-6499 http://webdna.net ================================------------------------------------------------------------- This message is sent to you because you are subscribed to the mailing list . To unsubscribe, E-mail to: To switch to the DIGEST mode, E-mail to Web Archive of this list is at: http://search.smithmicro.com/
Kenneth Grome
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