03-14-2004, 11:07 AM -
Well, thanks to all you for the welcomes, and your support of the product and it's future is evident and admirable. I think we're pretty much in agreement here; I wouldn't have registered the program unless I truly found it a necessary addition. That's one of the great things about shareware; you can try out a lot of things out there for any given need and vote with your dollars on the one you want to see developed and supported.
As far as the learning curve and technical aspects, I'm not too daunted by them; I am comforatble in XML content use and quite familiar with other skinning proggys/UI Enhancements - even developed a couple of nice XML/DesktopX objects.
But while I agree with your views and liked what you wrote....noone actually answered my questions...
I still don't know where the DK News Headlines skin is. I never received any answers on configuring the CNN skin either. Just as a comparitive example; I find that the plugins and objects released for Stardock's DesktopX are throoughly tested out with other developers and then they contribute to documenting the configs with the distributable so that even novices can install them. The CNN skin has *no* docs, not even a readme file which makes a new user unable to do anything with it. It left me with the feeling that new users are outsiders and this sort of thing was developed for the regulars in response to a previous discussion. (Granted this is a strictly subjective observation, but may be valid in some user experiences.)
As far as the 'Menu Based Weather Monitor' (I'm referring to the collection of skins developed as 'suite' to be used in menu mode, pulling info from different web sites...not usre if it has an official name) it was exactly what I was looking for so there was a real incentive to get it running. There was some documentation there and while sparse it really helped - and the discussion in the forum made up for whatever the docs lacked. But while I understand HorusUK's comments about providers changing URLs, surely the person who developed this (or everyday users) had to notice at sometime that the providers had changed their URLs, yet the provider files/documentation was never updated in the case of the AWS provider, nor was the subject listed in the FAQ or forums. To me this is very important to the products future, especially during the evaluation cycle. I wonder how many Joe Users out there just gave up and said, "Well, *that's* not going to work for me...NEXT..." Admittedly, not everyone's as hard headed and persitant as us techie types.
What's my mind blowing solution to this? Well I don't have one as such - but my hope in opening this dialogue - besides actually getting the darn thing to work - was to get the hardcore TLB gurus like yourselves to think about this. And if I can provide any perspective, to offer my help. Like I said, I really use even the simple features of TLB on a constant basis, so it is in my own best interest to see the thing survive, thrive (and hopefully stop crashing annoyingly whenever I go through the settings) !
(BTW, If I'm in the wrong place, please direct me to the right one and accept my apologies!)
As far as the learning curve and technical aspects, I'm not too daunted by them; I am comforatble in XML content use and quite familiar with other skinning proggys/UI Enhancements - even developed a couple of nice XML/DesktopX objects.
But while I agree with your views and liked what you wrote....noone actually answered my questions...
I still don't know where the DK News Headlines skin is. I never received any answers on configuring the CNN skin either. Just as a comparitive example; I find that the plugins and objects released for Stardock's DesktopX are throoughly tested out with other developers and then they contribute to documenting the configs with the distributable so that even novices can install them. The CNN skin has *no* docs, not even a readme file which makes a new user unable to do anything with it. It left me with the feeling that new users are outsiders and this sort of thing was developed for the regulars in response to a previous discussion. (Granted this is a strictly subjective observation, but may be valid in some user experiences.)As far as the 'Menu Based Weather Monitor' (I'm referring to the collection of skins developed as 'suite' to be used in menu mode, pulling info from different web sites...not usre if it has an official name) it was exactly what I was looking for so there was a real incentive to get it running. There was some documentation there and while sparse it really helped - and the discussion in the forum made up for whatever the docs lacked. But while I understand HorusUK's comments about providers changing URLs, surely the person who developed this (or everyday users) had to notice at sometime that the providers had changed their URLs, yet the provider files/documentation was never updated in the case of the AWS provider, nor was the subject listed in the FAQ or forums. To me this is very important to the products future, especially during the evaluation cycle. I wonder how many Joe Users out there just gave up and said, "Well, *that's* not going to work for me...NEXT..." Admittedly, not everyone's as hard headed and persitant as us techie types.
What's my mind blowing solution to this? Well I don't have one as such - but my hope in opening this dialogue - besides actually getting the darn thing to work
- was to get the hardcore TLB gurus like yourselves to think about this. And if I can provide any perspective, to offer my help. Like I said, I really use even the simple features of TLB on a constant basis, so it is in my own best interest to see the thing survive, thrive (and hopefully stop crashing annoyingly whenever I go through the settings) !(BTW, If I'm in the wrong place, please direct me to the right one and accept my apologies!)