Complete Crash or Engine Hang: which is better?

[Curry Kenworthy]

Mark:

 > Sorry to hear of all your crashes and hangs Curry.

Thanks! The crashes and hangs are only the icing on the cake; 90% of the 
calories are normal bugs, glitches, and poor quality of feature support.

But I actually love bug-hunting, and finding a crash or hang is like a 
trophy specimen. (When I start to NOT love bug-hunting is when there are 
so many issues that I realize this part of LC simply isn't well-coded.)

Since I'm working on this, LC pasting will improve one way or the other:
either through Engine fixes (especially the crashers) and/or my own lib.
Improvement is inevitable; I've made up my mind to ensure that. :)

Paul:

 > some overhaul of the LC code for interacting with the clipboard
 > is warranted to improve reliability.

Amen! Thank you for that sentiment. I heartily agree.

With one caveat: with LC, I'm getting leery of words like "refactor" and 
"overhaul." That's because after all the excitement of a shiny new 
revision, too often the new code is just as buggy and limited as the old 
code was. From half-finished, to half-finished. Different, yet same.

I think what LC needs, in areas like the Player and the Paste, is not 
necessarily just shiny new code, but rather fully-finished code.
Whether that builds on the old, or starts fresh, I don't care.
Either way a feature needs to be finished and polished, not roughed in.

For example, I am aware that the Player API needs updating. That will be 
good! But after doing so, the Team should polish the Player up a bit. 
Don't leave it glitchy and buggy, the way we found it a year ago.

Maybe one additional caveat: Resources are always limited, of course, so 
if it comes down to choosing between polishing the Player, versus 
polishing Paste, I'd say the Team should mainly polish the Player!

Because I can (and am) polishing Paste up quite a bit myself.
LC shoulda, woulda, coulda done it MUCH better in the first place.
But I can fix some high-level stuff myself, other than the crashers.
LC Team should improve the Player, optimize the Engine, etc.

Richard:

 > bugs that affect large numbers of people in ways that
 > prevent core use of the product generally don't live long,
 > if they live long enough to get past early beta at all.

I wish that were true! It probably is, in certain areas.
(And "large numbers" and "core use" provide nice cover fire.
Who knows, Paste might be a core use for more than a handful of people.)

The truth is that our Community, like most, has some social Cliques.
And every Clique has certain areas that it promotes over others.

The principles of "squeaky wheel" and "see what you want to see" apply.
The most vocal Clique may not be very "large" but they are very loud,
having an outsized effect on what gets added and fixed, versus ignored.

In their own areas of interest/need, they may notice bugs quickly.
Very good. But why have I been finding so many 5- and 10-year old bugs?
Seems like the Cliques missed a few. And of course the areas they aren't 
looking at, the areas they aren't promoting, may not seem important.

I'm not saying that's a sin; everyone has preferences and interests.
But to "the rest of us" some of those ignored areas are very important.
 From time to time, I ensure that other Voices and Narratives are heard.
Hopefully before people get frustrated and look for greener pastures.

Not to worry! Paste, and other areas, are improving by the day....

Best wishes,

Curry Kenworthy

Custom Software Development
"Better Methods, Better Results"
LiveCode Training and Consulting
http://livecodeconsulting.com/