Rayzoon Technologies LLC

ninjaface · Junior Jammer Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 5

While I'm sure the recent comments and criticisms of the new GUI are somewhat appreciated and have merit in accordance with their authors' opinions; we are collectivly taking our eyes off the prize. Ralph has already produced an amazing virtual instrument to which many of us would find it hard to live without. From what I have seen and heard of Jamstix 2 it already looks to be an exciting and extremely useful tool for all of us and we should trust Ralph's design decisions. My main and only real dissapointment with the new software is the seemingly endless wait for its release. Personally, I was under the assumption that the product was set to be released around this time. I completely understand software release delays as I am a designer and programmer myself but I was very disheartened to read Ralph's recent message that he now does not even want to give us a release estimate. That's it.

Dreaming of JS2 in Raleigh, NC

ninjaface · Junior Jammer Joined: 18 May 2006 Posts: 5

I know I'm not alone, please give me your comments

SlimeTime · Junior Jammer Joined: 07 Jul 2007 Posts: 4

I guess I should consider myself sorta fortunate that I've only been using Jamstix for a few months and haven't been chomping at the bit for JS2 since last June like many of you. But sure, I imagine it's frustrating. Maybe it would've been better for Ralph and Co. to just say '2007' as a release date. It seems that predicting software releases never holds true, no matter what the product.

I remember purchasing Native Instruments' Akoustik Piano right out of the launch gate. Of course the product was wrought with bugs and virtually unusable on some systems. They assured us that an update to fix this would come out in two weeks...then next month...then in two months...then MAYBE by Christmas...etc. Let's just say that I'm hoping Rayzoon has chosen NOT to put out a product like Akoustik Piano which was clearly not ready. Perhaps they would prefer to have anxious and annoyed customers rather than irate and bitter customers after the release of an incomplete product? Hmm...

Perhaps doing away with the 'estimated' due date is a good thing at this point. Not knowing will be hard, but it'll keep my day from being ruined when I expect JS2 at a certain time and find out it's not there yet.

O well, back to Jamstix 1 then. Very Happy

Still learning it and loving every moment of it (mostly...)

Ralph [RZ] · Site Admin Joined: 02 Jan 2008 Posts: 13332

Jamstix 2 is a near full rewrite and incorporates many new functions and algorithms. An unforeseen bug or performance problem can throw development back for several weeks and there really is no way to foresee that.

Having said that, the beta program for JS2 is progressing well and we are definitely seeing the end of the tunnel. We should have a real release date announcement within the next few weeks.
_________________
Ralph Zeuner
Rayzoon Technologies LLC
http://www.rayzoon.com

B-Runner · Jammer Joined: 13 Jul 2007 Posts: 20 Location: Switzerland

quote: ralf wrote: JS2 is progressing well and we are definitely seeing the end of the tunnel

so this are great news, aren't they? Razz

Vaylos · Junior Jammer Joined: 12 Jan 2007 Posts: 12

I try to be patient when waiting for new products from the software world. Classic example: games. On another note, I sometimes give a hand to the IT dept. where I work. I was helping our network admin test the new e-mail server, and I found a bug that dealt with the mail-filter, specifically, spam-assassin and postfix. The mailer itself worked great, and as expected. The spam filter bug, threw us from production phase back to development phase. (which, I hope to help him do some more testing later today)

Anyway, yes, bugs and problems being unforseen is kinda the nature of the beast when it comes to software development. It takes time to locate the bug (often by accident) figure out what causes the bug, and then figure out how to squash the bug.

In our case, it -looked- like everything was running as intended, until the filter issue came up. We couldn't find what was causing it until the admin gave up and ran the debugger. We found out the filter was running in taited mode due to a version incompatibility since he was running a lot of updates at the time.

Very easy solution, but the problem cause was not so easy to find. So, in my opinion, release dates are more of an educated guess if everything goes well, and as intended. I kinda take them with a grain of salt nowadays.

Either way, I am looking forward to taking a look at JS2 when it is released, so best of luck to the team, and here's hope to a smooth development cycle.

-James