Re: [Planner] Some issues

[Sheldon Simms <wsxyz6294 yahoo com>]

--- Waldemar Augustyn <waldemar nxp com> wrote:
    
      
>>> 1. Extension.It would be nice to abandon this very long ".mrproject" suffix.
>>> Three-letter extensions seem to be a  norm. *.pln or *.pnr ???  
    
>> The extension is a bit long, agreed. I'm not sure if it really matters though?

> OK, I did.
>
> I think this is one of those little annoyances that turn people off.
> Most expect three letters extensions, I would give it to them.
> Planner is generally pretty good wrt the usability issues.
> Very few in-your-face Unixisms.  That's good.

I have to comment on this. The length of the file extension is NOT a usability
issue. You talk about "in-your-face Unixisms" without bothering to acknowledge
the facts -- that a three letter extension on a file name is an archaic remnant
of a dead operating system and is itself an "in-your-face" Microsoftism.

You say "Most expect three letter extensions" but what you really mean is "I expect
three letter extensions" or equivalently "I have such an emotional commitment to
whatever Microsoft Windows does, that I can't accept any deviation whatsoever".
My advice to you is to simply get over it and accept that fact that only a complete
idiot would reject a program because it adds ".mrproject" to the end of its files
by default. I prefer no extension at all. Using an extension to specify the contents
of the file is ridiculous. It is possible to change the extension of any arbitrary
file to ".exe" in Windows, and Windows is stupid enough to try and run it. Do you
really think that's a good thing?!

My suggestion on the matter is to add a preferences dialog where the user can
select whatever extension he wants, or eliminate the extension entirely. A newly
installed Planner could have a default file extension of ".planner" or something
similar (".mrproject" is wrong because the program isn't called "Mr. Project"
any more). That way, the default would make sense, people like me could remove
the extension altogether, and pointy-haired bosses, Microsoft sycophants, and
other conformists could invent some a three letter extension.

>>> 4. PerformanceAdding/Deleting resources or tasks is very slow.
>>> On a 700Mhz RH-9.0 thepause is in single seconds range, just long enough to render the
>>> Planner unusable for anything serious.

>> I've heard this before, and tried to do some profiling to see what is slow, but I
>> couldn't really reproduce this.

> I am a little bit surprised at your suggestion this might be intermittent.
> I thought it is a lot more basic.

I have an Athlon XP 1800+ with 1Gb RAM and RH 9.0. I don't see this problem at all.
Adding resources or tasks is subjectively instantaneous.

-Sheldon


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