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From: davidsen@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP (William E. Davidsen Jr)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Where is my MSC 5.0
Message-ID: <7736@steinmetz.steinmetz.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 30-Oct-87 16:19:05 EST
Article-I.D.: steinmet.7736
Posted: Fri Oct 30 16:19:05 1987
Date-Received: Wed, 4-Nov-87 21:12:19 EST
References: <1926@uwmacc.UUCP>
Reply-To: davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen)
Organization: General Electric CRD, Schenectady, NY
Lines: 42
Keywords: Been long time
Summary: sort of a flame

In article <1926@uwmacc.UUCP> edwards@uwmacc.UUCP (mark edwards) writes:
|Well October has come and is almost gone. Yet my mailbox is
|still empty. Where is my MSC 5.0? Has anyone received it?
|Did anyone else notice the ad for it in PC connection ads?
|How much longer do we have to wait?

I believe thet MSC 5.0 is shipping now.
|
|How do these companies get away with vaporware? Is MS vaporware
|since Bill lost so much money?

Microsoft wasn't satisfied with the performance or reliability of the
compiler in beta test. The test was extended until all the problems were
fixed. When that seemed close, MS started the ads (there is a LONG lead
time), but held up the shipment when testing revealed more room for
improvement.

Some users blast a company for releasing a product before testing (I
could name about five major companies who ship a reliable product in the
third release). People complain when a company like MS doesn't ship on
time. The perfect company would test before announcing, but of course
they would go broke because the "ship when it run anything" companies
would have grabbed the business.

I see nothing wrong with advertizing a product when it's in beta test.
It lets the customer know that there is a reason to wait. I do object to
taking orders to finance software development (I know at least one
company which started that way).

Compare the first release of C from Microsoft, V3.0 (previous version
were from Lattice) with other compilers first release. I think the
seriousness of bugs was much lower in MSC. Each release has gotten
better, and the new version is fine indeed. I think you'll find it was
worth waiting for, and I wish I could give all my C students a chance to
use QuickC with Codeview.

I miss the point of Bill losing money. Was that as cheap a shot as it
sounds, or is there a relationship there?
-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me