Window refresh problem

[Richard Gaskin]

Robert Chiasson wrote:

> In the real world of consumers with computers, there will be NO upgrading
> drivers or similar nonsense, unless a retailer stands up and admits he sold
> half-baked crap and will now fix the problems for FREE, maybe even offering
> a refund to the consumer, who is not going to throw good money after bad.
> 
> My version of the bottom line: this means that if you want to sell "Joe
> Average" software, it has to work on HIS system, right out of the box.
> 
> Of course, in you market area YMMV.  :)

And if that market is Windows, it will.

When you're talking about complex systems like modern computers, there are
limits to what one can expect.

The CPU, motherboard, BIOS, RAM, video card, audio card, chassis, OS, etc.
are all made by different vendors.  In such a world, most software companies
cite tech support as an expense almost as large as R&D, and most only offer
it for free for a few weeks at best.  If it were so easy to provide
guaranteed compatibility with the hodgepodge of components that comprise
mosts systems, why wouldn't these experienced vendors want to take over
their markets by offering free unlimited support?

In this specific case, we're talking about an even clearer circumstance:
what to do when a video driver vendor has found and corrected a bug but the
user doesn't want to be bothered.

Given the variety of drivers and the nearless endless list of known issues
they've collectively repaired over the years, it's asking a lot of a third
party to write their app in a way that would account for even a fraction of
those driver bugs.

Let the video makers handle their bugs, and let Rev developers focus on
their own.  And as Scott Raney wrote in his Read Me, if you find a bug that
persists with the latest driver available, just sent the relevant details
and he'll see what can be done.  I don't see how anyone could expect more
than that.

But like I said, in all my years of actually developing and supporting
cross-platform wares, I've yet to find a circumstance in which a video issue
was not resolved by the video vendor.  There may be exceptions, but they are
rare, and I've not seen them.

If a Rev developr wants to provide exceptional support, they can hunt down
the driver URL for their user and email it to them.  I've done that myself a
few times and folks appreciate not having to navigate poorly-designed
support sites.

Fortunately these types of issues are rarely seen at all, in my experience.
In the five years since I started doing this I've shipped and supported
about a dozen Windows apps into very diverse markets, with an aggregate of
several thousand target systems.  In all that, this issue has only come up
about a dozen times, mostly with the early Win 95 and Win 98 systems, and
mostly on laptops.  Every one of these cases was resolved with a five minute
download, install, and reboot, and the remaining thousands of systems had no
such issues reported.

-- 
 Richard Gaskin 
 Fourth World Media Corporation
 Developer of WebMerge 2.2: Publish any database on any site
 ___________________________________________________________
 Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com
 Tel: 323-225-3717                       AIM: FourthWorldInc