An Appreciation

Please use this forum to post bug reports, feature requests, tips, etc. for beta versions of Picture Window Pro 8

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doug
Posts: 111
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 10:06 am
What is the make/model of your primary camera?: Nikon D-500
Location: Toledo, Ohio USA

An Appreciation

Post by doug »

I am not a good beta tester. But as a dedicated user and fan of PWP since 2004 with PWP 3.5, I have been watching this “development” process from the sidelines with great interest – on an almost daily basis.

There have been 83 total days between the March 26 release of PWP 8.0 Beta and June 17 (Fathers’ Day).
Jonathan has issued bug fix releases on 71 of those days and on 8 days has released fixes twice during the day – for a total of 79 bug fix releases. Thus, there have been only 12 days out of 83 with no release. Can you say “he’s keeping busy in retirement?” Quite amazing, really.

We do appreciate you, Jonathan.
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: An Appreciation

Post by jsachs »

And thanks to all the testers who have spent countless hours helping me with these final stages of development. Without a testing community I would probably never find many of the bugs, and your suggestions for improvements have also been invaluable. I wouldn't put in the time if I wasn't enjoying the process and probably if I wasn't as compulsive as I am about getting things to work. And knowing there is an audience out there provides me with powerful motivation as well, so I have a lot to be appreciative of.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
MarkT
Posts: 366
Joined: April 24th, 2009, 2:07 pm

Re: An Appreciation

Post by MarkT »

I totally agree with Doug - it has been fascinating to see watch how quickly Jonathan has been able to issue the updates. I cannot imagine how it all comes together.

I too have been completely a fan since ordering my first copy of PWP in the the late '90s (and even before that when I started using Lotus 1-2-3 in the mid '80s.)

Without PWP I would not have been able to transition from a wet darkroom to a digital darkroom, so I add my congratulations and thanks to Mr. Sachs for continuing to evolve this "amazing" product.

Now, what's left to get this version to the Beta stage...
jsachs
Posts: 4203
Joined: January 22nd, 2009, 11:03 pm

Re: An Appreciation

Post by jsachs »

Actually, quite a lot is left before I would call PWP 8 beta software. While I should not have been surprised given the magnitude of the rewrite, it is taking longer than I would have predicted to get the code resemble anything I would call stable. I also need to do a thorough check for memory and resource leaks. Not all the features I plan to include in the beta release are finished, such as the Edit tool, cleaning up progress bars, adding a customizable tool bar, and creating a 32-bit version to name a few. I had originally hoped to include performance improvements such as using NVidia graphics cards, although CPUs with a lot more cores also seem to be on the near horizon, but I am now deferring that to a future release. Last by not least, PWP 8 needs a new introductory manual and a set of tutorials as the original manual is hopelessly out of date.

My first priority is getting a usable, stable version that is safe to use for production work as there is nothing like using software regularly to expose bugs or design weaknesses and to generate good suggestions for enhancements. Next is to fill out the feature set, and finally documentation and performance speedups.
Jonathan Sachs
Digital Light & Color
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