We share your pain

As users of software we often get the feeling that the publisher was quite happy to sell it to us but does not really care after that. Microsoft ‘invented’ the We Share Your Pain program and although it is a joke, it addresses a real issue.

After commenting in my previous blog post on the tangible T4 Editor including the modeling tools I was contacted by Tim Fischer, the author of the extension and he asked me what I felt was wrong with the modeling tools. Here is my response:

“I don’t have any issues with the modeling tools (I never tested them much) however I dislike the automatic co-install. A bit like installing Acrobat reader and getting the Google toolbar at the same time. Fortunately Adobe added the checkbox to the install to make it option (I still think they made an error by making it checked by default).

You see, when installing extra tools in VS my UI gets massive; the context menu is getting huge, the lists to pick from in the "add item" dialog is getting longer and even the menu scales out. All the publishers tend to think they deliver the most (and only) important tool. They don’t.”

Tangible decided to add a new dialog to the setup:

Two things I noticed: Tangible shared my pain and tried to fix it, which they did and they read my blog. Good work!