[Etester-devel] Re: E-Tester 2.1.2

[Gunnar G. <gu...@cs...>]

Hi Dave,

Responses interspersed with your message.

At 6:04 PM -0400 9/9/03, Dave Makalsky wrote:
>E-Tester 2.1.2 has been released.

I downloaded and tried it on my dictionary system.  It failed to 
compile, no to_string feature, see below.

>Changelog:
>
>- indexing clauses have been updated to reflect the current version number

Good.

>- As per Gunnar's suggestion the folder is now named etester2.1.2 and not
>etester2-dev

Thank you.  It helps the user keep track of the different versions -- 
I have now three:
2.0, 2.1 and 2.1.2.  Oops, need to remove 2.1.

>- to_string has been removed since to_html is superior ... this will 
>eventually
>   be replaced with to_xml

Thank goodness for this message as I would have been completely lost 
without it.   I suggest that with every new version you give a change 
log.  I do not believe that I am in the minority in saying that I 
have may other things I want to do besides spending time reverse 
engineering systems to find differences.

Sorry but more negativity,  Using your statement, I replaced 
to_string with to_html.   The compilation failed.  I now find out 
that the parameters have changed.  My question, after searching for 
the feature (which class is it in? I assume it is in the 
HTML_REPORTING cluster but there are three classes tosearch).

My point.  Why do I have to search?  The comment to_string has been 
replaced by to_html needs to be expanded to somelike the following.

to_string has been replaced by to_html.  In version 2.0 the use of 
to_string was
    print(to_string)
The use of to_html is similar as follows
    print(to_html(output_file_name))

I have not tried that.  Is that correct?  Or do I have to do more 
trial and error work?

Please, when making changes for clear, unambiguous instructions for 
users about the changes.  The computing world, and even the 
technology world in general, has too many people and instances that 
like game playing and think that all users should spend hours 
experimenting with their systems when changes take place.

Please tell me, and other users exactly what changes I need to make 
to have old programs work.  This is very important as I have examples 
for students that are "old" and on Prism they are using v2.1 or 
v2.1.2 so my examples all fail.  I have may other things to to 
besides trial and error playing with etester  (for example I have to 
prepare for a COSC 3401 class in 45 minutes).    I repeat such 
instructions, should be industry standard.

I also note that you are planing on changing from to_html to to_xml. 
Thus you are expecting me and others, to edit all old programs now 
and again in the future.  This is not good design.   The interface 
should be the most stable part of the system.  It is the most 
critical and most time consuming for user's of your system to learn 
and then modify.

If you are going to change the name then change it to  to_sgml 
because SGML is the abstract standard that includes HTML, XML, 
Bookmaster, Lector, and other tagging systems.  For variations you 
have   to_sgml_html, to_sgml_xml but these are additions to your 
system.  Do not remove such features as that forces all clients to be 
edited.

Cheers ... Gunnar