Questions for PMMail Tech Support

[Simon Bowring]

Now that the HTML thang has been addressed(!), I feel able to comment
on the rest of your email Ralph.

I understand your frustrations and I think we all do deserve more 
feedback and openness from blueprint, but I don't think your 
questions are particularly helpful.

>2.  Will the updates scheduled for release before Christmas contain any
>new features or will they be bug fixes only?  If so, can you post a
>description of the new features being added?
i.e. How long is a peice of string?  If they answer this question but 
fail to implement a new feature, they will leave themselves open to 
critisism.  If I were blueprint I would not publicly commit to a
specific set of new features at this stage. Inevitably features will 
have to be dropped or the timescales will have to be extended if 
they make such "promises" but fail to hit their targets - this has 
been the nature of software development for the last 30 years, and
doesn't look set to change any time soon!

More pragmatic is to schedule a ".x" release at some approximate
point in the future which will contain whatever bug-fixes and new 
features that have been developed and tested as working by that stage.
To publish a list of features and bug fixes that will have been done 
by some point in the future requires clairvoyance.

>3.  Will BSW be conducting a beta test period for the new releases
>scheduled for before Christmas?  If so, when can we expect the test
>period to begin and will it be open or limited.  If not, why not?
A more useful question, though a bit antagonistic ("if not, why not?" as 
if they "must" do this, when this is patently their own commercial
decision).

>4.  Will Peter Nielsen be directly involved with the updates 
What does being "directly involved with the updates" mean?
Does it mean is he personally fixing bugs and writing code?
What are you trying to discover here?

I would like to see 3 public lists on the website:

1. Reported bugs and their status
2. Feature requests (for "voting" purposes, the most popular features
   would not necessarily be implemented, since this is a technical 
   and commercial decision)
3. New features *planned* in forthcoming releases - this would have to 
   emphasize that not all planned features are likely to be delivered.

Then with each relase I'd expect a list of bug fixes and new features.

I strongly *suspect* that PMMail's devlopment has not been subject to
very much "configuration management" (the use of source control 
systems and bug tracking tools etc).  Programmers often consider such
tools restrictive and opressive for small one or two man projects, 
however such tools (or "manual" procedures that emulate them) are 
essential for the sort of information that we would like to see, and
also essential if project personell change (as has happended with 
PMMail).

Simon