Slowdown in development, or just in releases?

[ScottH]

It seems like updates to the Pedias have slowed down substantially, from about every month in the last couple years, to--well, the last one was mid-January. Does this reflect:

1) a stamping out of persistent bugs, a general leveling-off of the feature set, and an overall contentment with the product,

2) a shift in focus from the Mac desktop versions to iPhone/iPad development (which, in my perspective, is an auxiliary market, and not the main business, the one that most of your users are here for. Please don't abandon the desktop in favor of the sexier-looking mobile market!),

3) intense development on a major new release that will include new features as well as the usual small fixes, or

4) something else, related to Bruji staff or company direction?

The pedias (in my case, DVDpedia, which I think is the most successful of the main products) are near and dear to my heart, and many others. I'm just wondering if I need to be concerned about the future of the product.

[Alex]

Hmm... I find this comment a bit odd because, personally, I don't recall another time when there has been more development going on in the pedias than now. Conor can give you clear specifics (he's the developer after all) but in the last couple of months we've had numerous betas, we're up to beta 24 now and it seems 10 days ago that beta 19 came out.

There was also a recent release of a reworked iSight barcode scanning function, written almost from scratch, the new algorithm is much better than before.

http://bruji.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f= ... ght#p15170

There have been numerous features and bug fixes in the betas. While I realize that you're probably referring to a stable version being released, rest assured that development is going on, a quick stroll through our forum should quell any fears that you might have

It will also clear up the fact that we are not abandoning the desktop apps in favour of mobile devices:

http://bruji.com/articles/2010/01/19/bad-news-day/

Cheers.

[ScottH]

Thank you, Alex. I'm very glad to hear it. I guess my #3 was circling around the issue, which sounds like longer beta development cycles and fewer official point releases. I haven't made a habit of following the beta news. And while I was informed about the Amazon problem with mobile apps, I've been assuming that with the true accumulated genius at Bruji (OK, I mean mostly Conor that some way around that utterly unreasonable restriction might be found at some point, considering how popular and sexy-sounding the iPhone/Pad mobile market seems to be right now (and how big Pocketpedia seems to have been in its short lifespan). I'm very happy to know that development is as strong as ever on the desktop versions. I'm glad that the iSight issues are being resolved, since that's pretty much the only place where any other company's product was still ahead of yours. Personally, I got a cheap CueCat a few years ago, and that's made it a breeze to add DVDs to my system.

[kbarnes70]

Hmm... I find this comment a bit odd because, personally, I don't recall another time when there has been more development going on in the pedias than now. Conor can give you clear specifics (he's the developer after all) but in the last couple of months we've had numerous betas, we're up to beta 24 now and it seems 10 days ago that beta 19 came out.

Hi Alex,

One of the problems or reasons why the OP commented is that there is no central place AFAIK where the betas are kept. I stumble across them sometimes when reading the various posts in the forum and sometimes Conor has been kind enough to make a beta especially to resolve an issue I have raised, but, for example, until you mentioned that we are on Beta 24, I was still under the impression that Beta 21 was the latest. Would it be possible to have a central download area for the Betas, with a brief description of what was fixed or changed so that users can decide whether to download a beta or to wait for the next one, or even the release version?

Kind regards,

Keith

[sjk]

One of the problems or reasons why the OP commented is that there is no central place AFAIK where the betas are kept. […] Would it be possible to have a central download area for the Betas, with a brief description of what was fixed or changed so that users can decide whether to download a beta or to wait for the next one, or even the release version?

I suggested several ideas for beta releases to Conor last year, though since it was private I won't share his feedback without his permission. At least we've usually been getting a simple version number with beta announcements on the forum for awhile instead of just being generically referred to as "the beta".

[kbarnes70]

One of the problems or reasons why the OP commented is that there is no central place AFAIK where the betas are kept. […] Would it be possible to have a central download area for the Betas, with a brief description of what was fixed or changed so that users can decide whether to download a beta or to wait for the next one, or even the release version?

I suggested several ideas for beta releases to Conor last year, though since it was private I won't share his feedback without his permission. At least we've usually been getting a simple version number with beta announcements on the forum for awhile instead of just being generically referred to as "the beta".

True And much better it is too. My problem is I don't read every single post in every single thread, so it's easy to miss a Beta release and even when I find out about it accidentally, as I did with Beta 24, I still have no idea what it fixes or adds, which means I also have no idea if I want it or need it or if I can wait till the next one.

I know Conor is incredibly busy constantly updating the program and I woukd hesitate to burden him even more with formal beta releases and release notes and so on, but without that, it's all a bit haphazard from the users' POV. We're fortunate that we have a developer who listens and responds so rapidly so I don't want to sound as if I am criticising him because I am not. If he could just include a small text file in the ZIP with each beta, explaining what issues have been resolved it would be great. Doesn't need to be anything very polished. Meanwhile, if I knew what Beta 24 included, I might download it. If I knew where to download it from of course (without the link in a post I haven't seen!)

Kind regards.

Keith

[Alex]

One of the problems or reasons why the OP commented is that there is no central place AFAIK where the betas are kept. I stumble across them sometimes when reading the various posts in the forum and sometimes Conor has been kind enough to make a beta especially to resolve an issue I have raised, but, for example, until you mentioned that we are on Beta 24, I was still under the impression that Beta 21 was the latest. Would it be possible to have a central download area for the Betas, with a brief description of what was fixed or changed so that users can decide whether to download a beta or to wait for the next one, or even the release version?

You are quite right Keith, it is a problem that we are trying to address. But as you pointed out we all have our hands full, especially Conor with development so it's been tricky implementing even a simple solution. But we are working towards it and hope to have such a system in place. You hit the nail on the head: if users don't know the betas are out there they won't try them and even if they know they're out there, unless they know what has been changed in the beta they might be weary of trying them.

We'll keep at it. Thanks for all your comments.

[kbarnes70]

One of the problems or reasons why the OP commented is that there is no central place AFAIK where the betas are kept. I stumble across them sometimes when reading the various posts in the forum and sometimes Conor has been kind enough to make a beta especially to resolve an issue I have raised, but, for example, until you mentioned that we are on Beta 24, I was still under the impression that Beta 21 was the latest. Would it be possible to have a central download area for the Betas, with a brief description of what was fixed or changed so that users can decide whether to download a beta or to wait for the next one, or even the release version?

You are quite right Keith, it is a problem that we are trying to address. But as you pointed out we all have our hands full, especially Conor with development so it's been tricky implementing even a simple solution. But we are working towards it and hope to have such a system in place. You hit the nail on the head: if users don't know the betas are out there they won't try them and even if they know they're out there, unless they know what has been changed in the beta they might be weary of trying them.

We'll keep at it. Thanks for all your comments.

Thanks Alex. I've owned a computer since the early 80s and in that time have used hundreds of different programs, but I have never encountered one with the level of support that DVDpedia has. Bruji is the standard by which all the others should be judged in my opinion. Thanks to all of the team.

Kind regards,

Keith

[ScottH]

I agree completely with Keith. Bruji is absolutely in a class all by itself as far as customer service and feedback is concerned. And I'm thrilled to see that 4.6 has just been released, and that there's a lot more in development for the future. Honestly, I'm not sure I could even come up with a feature I'd like to see added, but I'm always thrilled to see the improvements.

[FineWine]

I agree completely with Keith. Bruji is absolutely in a class all by itself as far as customer service and feedback is concerned. And I'm thrilled to see that 4.6 has just been released, and that there's a lot more in development for the future. Honestly, I'm not sure I could even come up with a feature I'd like to see added, but I'm always thrilled to see the improvements.

AGREE also