Tuesday, February 27, 2007

Don't ACT!

Why is ACT! Development now so difficult?

Up to version 6 of ACT! the product was based on a fairly simple file structure and the developer interface was well documented and easy to use. Most of the functions within ACT seemed to be reasonably straight forward to implement. I wrote the original Phonix to ACT interface in a weekend and it worked very well. We obviously then spent a lot of time enhancing the interface but it wasn't rocket science.

ACT Professional introduced 2 major changes. Firstly the simple file system was replaced with SQL in an effort to "improve" performance on large systems. Secondly, the whole thing was redone in .NET. As Sage have also discovered in Line 50 2007 this isn't necessarily a good idea. This change to NET means that ALL previous add ins will no longer work and need to be totally rewritten in .Net. This is a huge task. The programmers have to learn a completely new language (that seems to be obscure just for the sake of it), purchase the new development tools and then rewrite the addin. As if that wasn't enough a lot of the functionality that was there in version 6 can't be replicated in the new version. Just to make life more interesting the ACT Professional documentation appears to have been badly translated from the original Klingon version by someone who really wants to make your life as difficult as possible. And the product itself is full of bugs anyway.

Still we pressed on and redeveloped our interface. It only took 3 months. And we sold two.

We get the odd marketing survey from Sage asking what they can do to improve the developers life but strangely they never respond to any issues raised. Nor do any of the Sage / ACT management respond to any phone calls or emails. Presumably if your face fits you get a response as an ACT add-in for another version of Sage recently won a Sage prize. Makes me feel so much better about paying our Sage Developers fees every year.

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Stupid is as stupid does

For some time now I've had the largely uappreciated (because I didn't notice) convenience of just being able to get on with my job. Since Windows 2000 I'd generally just been able to load the machine and use it.

Then I stupidly installed Internet Explorer 7.

Deep joy.

Now accessing a web site has an element of Russian Roulette. Will it work? Will IE just hang for no obvious reason? Perhaps Microsoft were getting bored and wanted to get back to the good old days of crap software.

Well here's the news. I've been doing this for 34 years. I don't have the time, inclination or patience to sod about with stuff that doesn't work.

Just switch your licensing model. You need a revenue stream and I'll happily pay if you just make the things we have work. I don't want a new one, I just want one that works in a predictable and reliable way. I don't want to have redevelop all our products because you've got a new OS or a new language that delivers no tangible benefits other than to your bottom line. Making it add up numbers in a consistent way would be a bonus.

Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Not very EasyJet

Well OK, the jet bit was pretty easy but the Europcar car hire part of the transaction was a less than wonderful experience. I've obviously never tried a career in the secret police with a specialist subject of interrogation but even if I had I doubt whether I could have found out what the ****** car insurance costs or covers.

The EasyJet web site offers optional Piece of Mind cover to top up the CDW which apparently doesn't. Nowhere on any of the web sites can you find a definition of what this actually covers but clearly it isn't piece of mind. Still, hey ho, you can ring a premium rate telephone number or send an email that will be completely ignored.

Unsurprisingly, on arrival at Luton Airport I was invited to pay still more money to get Europcar Piece of Mind cover which is apparently is a different type of zen like calm than that offered by EasyJet. I couldn't pursue this much further as the Europcar operatives English was only marginally better than the helpful French security officials at Bordeaux.

Still I'm glad that I had the zen option because it was pitch black and it would have been impossible to check what the state of the car actually was. Lack of a radio aeriel would have been on the list. Local radio is such a joy.

Unfortunately the zen option didn't cover the houses in the rest of the street who were introduced to the cars alarm system very early the next day when I foolishly used the key to unlock the door. For those of you hiring a Kia something or other the button to disarm the alarm system is on the side of the ignition key which you may not notice at 0630 in the morning.

The people on the Europcar help desk don't know where it is either....

And another thing

As one didn't appear to have much choice I've now updated to the new improved Blogger software.

I'm tempted to go and look up the word "progress" but I'm fairly sure it won't have "new blogger" in the definition. Maybe it'll say"waste another few minutes of your life for no obvious reason".

I have two Google accounts because of the cack handed way Adwords and Adsense were handled. Would the upgrade accept my preferred account? Nope. My password was apparently wrong, incorrect, rubbish. Sigh.

So once we'd entered our alternative account all is apparently well. Except I can't search all blogs anymore. I'm sure there's a way ; I just can't be bothered to waste any more of my life looking for it.

Message to all developers. If you must provide new featues don't hide the old ones. The clutch is next to the brake. It's not in the boot, glove compartment or in the centre console. Life is too short.

But then you're probably American.

And don't know what a clutch is....

Another Day, Another Patch

Just got an email from Sage that Line 50 version 13 Update 4 is available for download.

I'm 100% behind Sage on getting these fixes out asap but it would probably be helpful for the average Line 50 user if Sage made the update process a little easier.

The download page says in big red letters that you can only apply this patch if you have version 13.02.17.0126 and to be fair does tell you how to check which version you have.

What it doesn't do is to tell you what to do if you don't have this version......

Given most Sage Line 50 users are just trying to their job (which isn't technical support) I think Sage could devote some of their considerable revenues into coming up with an easy to use update deployment mechanism that checks what it needs to apply. End users shouldn't need to have this level of knowledge and frankly I don't see why I should need to either.