Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!snorkelwacker!think!samsung!brutus.cs.uiuc.edu!jarthur!aqdata!sullivan
From: sullivan@aqdata.uucp (Michael T. Sullivan)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Problems With Informix Turbo Engine
Message-ID: <1990Mar21.162446.10651@aqdata.uucp>
Date: 21 Mar 90 16:24:46 GMT
References: <3656@infmx.UUCP>
Organization: aQdata, Inc.  Western Region -- San Dimas, CA
Lines: 44

:From article <3656@infmx.UUCP>, by bgolden@infmx.UUCP (Bernard Golden):
> 
> With respect to the issue of bug fixes, I don't know which particular bug
> fix you are referring to.  There are tradeoffs that come into
> play when deciding which bugs to fix, with the issues usually being
> severity of a particular bug, severity of other bugs outstanding,
> desireability of a feature vs. some number of bugs that could be coded in
> the same time, etc.  Our policy is that the most severe bugs get priority.

Which bugs to fix.  WHICH BUGS TO FIX!!  ->>>FIX THEM ALL!!!!<<<-
Informix is always in the news about how successful they are.  One would
think that some money could be spent on hiring a programmer or two to
fix bugs that have been in the products for years.

> Sometimes this means that a less-severe bug will not be addressed in
> the next release.  This of course ignores the issue of the bug that flows
> in the day after you freeze a release.  For example, release XXX freezes
> 3/15.  On 3/16 an irritating but not devastating bug comes in from a
> customer.  Release XXX won't be held up for this fix, so it is sent off
> to be ported to lots of machines.  This process takes months to complete
> on every machine we support.  Customer YYY (who reported the bug )
> gets release XXX on his machine five months later and sees the bug and
> wonders why it isn't fixed.  We are reluctant to continue feeding bugfixes
> into ports because of the possibility of unanticipated consequences.

Of course, you couldn't actually include a list of known bugs with the
product so a customer would know what to look out for instead of spending
days trying to find out why a program isn't working, then calling Informix
to report the bug only to find out that they already know about it and
that the bug won't be fixed until _maybe_ the next realease.

> We will cheerfully accept your money for these efforts.  Life is too short
> for regrets.

You have already accepted a customer's money for the product AND for
maintenance.  What more money do you want (remember:  they aren't price
increases, they are machine reclassifications)?

Somehow, I don't think your posting had the soothing effect that was
intended.
-- 
Michael Sullivan          uunet!jarthur!aqdata!sullivan
aQdata, Inc.              sullivan@aqdata.uucp
San Dimas, CA             +1 714 599 9992