Re: Top 10 IDL Requests

[davidf(at)dfanning.com (David Fanning)]

Michael Plonski (mplonski@aer.com) writes:

> I sent a where-not request to rsinc a few years back and nothing
> happened.  

RSI does (believe it or not) respond to user requests. 
For example, they added a Min_Value keyword to
the Plot command after I pointed out to them (on several
occasions, I admit) that the *first* thing a new user
tried to do after I introduced the Max_Value keyword was
use a Min_Value keyword.

What RSI does not do well, and this frustrates the hell
out of the customer who is trying to be helpful, is
follow up with a customer to let them know the status
of their request or bug report. I think, frankly, that
this follow-up should be made someone's job. It is
a simple thing to do (you don't have to pay someone
$100K a year to do it), but it makes S-O-O-O much
difference to a customer. I wouldn't be at all
surprised if it returned $100K of good will and
increased sales many times over.

And, then, let us KNOW when you fix something
or improve something. ADVERTISE it. And do it
some place besides the README file that the system
administrator deleted to say space for other things.
I can't tell you how many IDL programmers I see who
go through life writing lousy code because they
don't know there is now a better way of doing things.
(If I see one more WMENU command I am going to give
up and turn my "humorous comment" responsibilities 
over to Pavel, who has been making me laugh a lot, 
lately).

Cheers,

David

P.S. Let's just say by making the follow-up someone's
job, accountability will have to go up. In fact, if the
follow-up were David Stern's job I'll bet a LOT of things
would get fixed. :-)

-- 
David Fanning, Ph.D.
Fanning Software Consulting
Phone: 970-221-0438 E-Mail: davidf@dfanning.com
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