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An open letter to Alpha Software

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    #16
    RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

    Paul-
    I think that we're starting to talk in circles. Thanks for your thoughts. bill

    Comment


      #17
      RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

      Hey Kenn

      You don't have to get nasty.

      I was just quoting some of the "features" stated in the Alpha release. It still looks complicated and TIME CONSUMING.

      Each and every time you A5vers have brought up what you think is a good point about A5, I (and other A4 people) have shot it down time and time again.

      The A5 mutual admiration society is down the hall and to the right.

      This is the A4 forum.

      My crystal ball is just fine thanks

      RS

      Comment


        #18
        RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

        Perhaps Ken forgot the ;-) at the end of his message. He's not known for being nasty.

        Follow the thread back. See who introduced A5 as a topic in this thread. This isn't an A4 vs. A5 thing, as many of us use both. But it's worthwhile to make sure that misunderstandings are cleared up and misinformation corrected or people won't have the accurate information they need to make informed choices. ;-)

        Comment


          #19
          RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

          Keep in mind that A5 advocates still haven't told me one significant thing that A5 alone can do that A4 alone can't. They did mentioned "action scripts & button commands" but A4 can do both of these (see chpt 18 of Reference Manual). Usually these A5 advocates just generalize with platitudes, without being specific.
          Performance: I have made test runs of DB searches with A4, A5 & Access. A4 won by a slight margin. This makes a diffence when working with large DB's.
          Xbasic: I can't comment on Xbasic because I haven't used it. I not crazy about having to learn two time consuming programs inorder to do what one should do.
          bill

          Comment


            #20
            RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

            IF they WANTED to keep ALL their Customers and Upgrade them WHY did'nt they make the FIRST Version of A5 where EVERYONE Could USE it with Scripts like we WERE use to with the Windows Interface. A leaning Curve is NOT worth it and I have heard that OVER & OVER on this the A4 NOT A5 forum.

            Ken

            Comment


              #21
              RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

              To Bill Salter:

              You said.....
              "Keep in mind that A5 advocates still haven't told me one significant thing that A5 alone can do that A4 alone can't..."

              While this is not something possible in A4, it was really essy in A5. And.... really not 'significant'.

              A 12 hour digital clock on all forms - with seconds - running and updating every second.

              I did it with a bunch of third party dos-clock stuff in A4 and with about three clicks in A5.


              Ken
              [P.S.] I you HAVE done that, and you have the third party software, e-mail it to me please.... I had a disk crash and can't find wherever I got the darned thing in the first place. Had it for about 6 years.

              Comment


                #22
                RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                ken-
                that's a new one to me. you're right "its not significant", but i'll try it the next time i have the time to play with it. thanks for the thought. bill

                Comment


                  #23
                  RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                  Rick,

                  I've been out of circulation for a few days and since you accused me of being �nasty�, I�d like to respond. My reference to Rick�s �cloudy crystal ball� was NOT meant to be nasty. Rather, it was in reference to one of Ricks statements:

                  �I had a look at the features of A5v5. It sure looks (at least on the surface) we will still have to learn X-basic to know what is going on. Most of us do not have the time for this.�

                  Oh really? How can you speak for others about a product you haven�t used?

                  I could go on and on but I don�t want this issue to be rehashed so I�m going to end it here.

                  kenn (:>>)
                  TYVM :) kenn

                  Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                  Comment


                    #24
                    RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                    ken-
                    i've been following the A4 vs A5 arguements for a past month or so. it seems to me that its the old "users" vs "programmers" argument. users are mostly interested in getting an application that is simple and fast. they really don't care about the program. programmers are primarily interested in showing all possible features of the program. the program is the center of their focus, not the job. the two groups live in different worlds.

                    as for me, Alpha4 does every info.system job i've encountered, and it runs faster than A5 and Access. bill

                    Comment


                      #25
                      RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                      Bill,

                      Congratulations on your success. I agree with your statement about ease of use. Obviously, that has been the big complaint about A5. It is getting better and it appears that v5 will be very user friendly; perhaps as much as or more than A4. Time will tell.

                      However, I do not agree with your statement of users vs programers. Not all persons who use A5 are developers. I don't know the numbers but I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that the majority of A5 users are NOT developers.

                      Nor do I agree that programers are "primarily interested in showing all possible features of the program". I believe it's 'all the possible' features that help cause a 'user' to purchase the program.

                      kenn
                      TYVM :) kenn

                      Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                      Comment


                        #26
                        RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                        ken-
                        thanks for your thoughts.
                        my opinion on programmers vs users is based on my experience in hiring programmers to do a job. this experience has caused me to always have a user as the senior designer of an application, assissted by a senior programmer.
                        once the design ia agreed to, the user turns over the project to the programmer(s) to make the application. this approach has worked pretty good. from experience, i never let a programmer design an application; it would turn-out to be inefficient(ie, it would use unecessary commands & functions) and over-run costs. bill

                        Comment


                          #27
                          RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                          Bill,

                          Yup,

                          Truer words were never spoken. How many times has one tried a software program (most any program) only to find out a user had no input and it had to be used as technically as it was written. What a PAIN!

                          I think most A5 developers are/were also users so hopefully that is not an issue from them. When an app is developed, if it isn't easy to use, it's not much good, no matter what it can do.

                          My idea of Help files are: 1) Some fields may require an example of the way data is to be entered and 2) some examples of how queries, etc. should be formulated. Other than that, there shouldn't need to be much, if any, help files.

                          kenn
                          TYVM :) kenn

                          Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                          Comment


                            #28
                            RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                            ken-
                            i haven't given much thought to help files, altho they are important. i do like the a4 reference manual. bill

                            Comment


                              #29
                              RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                              Bill,

                              Sometimes it's good to make help files even if you're the only one to use the app. Perhaps there's a part of it that won't be used much and it could be months w/o using that part. A simple button w/the word Help on it can pop up a form describing the type of data to enter in a field or the manner in which the data is to be entered.

                              This is especially true if running a report where date or other parameters are entered before the report is run. The parameter can say, for example, "Enter the case number". So, what if the case number is 123456-01? Do you enter the "-" or just the numbers? A small bit of help can avoid a misentered case number.

                              BTW, A5v5 will have a neat feature that, when the curser is placed over a field, a micro help will pop up describing how to enter data into the field (or any other message you want the user to know). Certainly don't need to be a developer to like this feature. Matter of fact, a developer could use this feature as sort of a "help as you go".

                              kenn
                              TYVM :) kenn

                              Knowing what you can achieve will not become reality until you imagine and explore.

                              Comment


                                #30
                                RE: An open letter to Alpha Software

                                I too have been using Alpha 4 since it started and have found it very useful for home and charity related projects. I love the interface. It seems so intuitive. Everyone tells me to go to Access. I've tried it & found it too confusing. Then I tried Alpha 5 and found it to be just as confusing. BUT with A4 not able to work with Windows XP, we all will have to do something at some point in the future. Does anyone know of an application that can make Alpha 5 or Access look and respond like Alpha 4. Seems like it should be possible but I don't have the time or skills to do it. Any thoughts?????

                                Comment

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