Still an interesting thought: I’d like the next update from Emb to NOT contain any new features at all – just a huge bundle of bug fixes
Posted by jpluimers on 2018/12/11
Still an interesting thought: [WayBack] Maybe we need a vote here but personally I’d like the next update from Emb to NOT contain any new features at all – just a huge bundle of bug fixes. We… – Chris Pimlott – Google+.
Especially the comments in it are well worth re-reading.
By now a new Delphi version should have been out, so I am curious how the balance between bug fixes and new features was.
Edit: Fixed bugs are features, so in my opinion Embarcadero should release only bug-fix updates and upgrades for at least two years.
–jeroen
PS: Nice G+ comment at [WayBack] Still an interesting thought: [WayBack] Maybe we need a vote here but personally I’d like the next update from Emb to NOT contain any new features at al… – Jeroen Wiert Pluimers – Google+:
Problem with new features is that they usually come with new bugs. Therefore new features take away developer capacity from fixing old bugs twice.
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
rvelthuis said
A very old but useless thought. Releases without new features won’t sell or be accepted by many. They would get a bad press too. Such bug fix releases can only be updates, never upgrades (i.e. version changes).
jpluimers said
I have the opposite opinion, as from my perspective and chatting around with Delphi clients, most of them do get it that fixed bugs are features and would welcome a period of only bugfixing releases.
They majority certainly do not appreciate the ever changing of UI (like layouts, styles and moving around UI elements to different places) at the cost of introduced bugs and lost functionality. That really pisses most of them off because of lost productivity.
KMorwath said
Unluckily, that’s not what marketing thinks, and executives as well. So there’s no hopes :) About “bad press”, I wonder if any release of Delphi has any “press” attention anymore – I don’t see “Rio” making headlines…
Since “upgrades” became .x point releases, the difference with “updates” has become very blurred – moreover you’re forced into a subscription, so I can’t really see any difference. As software quality and the impact of bugs – often with big security implications – became far more important than new widgets or some syntactic sugar, focusing for a while on quality would probably still sell, as Delphi has now a captive market which has very little other choices. Of course hobbyists prefer new features to play with, people betting their income on software may prefer quality and reliability. With more resources you can try to target both, but even with development off-shored to Ukraine I believe the investment is not that large.
Anyway, look at the bad press Windows 10 is getting for botching upgrades – the “October 2018” release will be probably available well into 2019, while people laugh (and, if badly impacted, cry) at the bugs which continue to surface every time MS attempts to make it available.
rvelthuis said
“Of course hobbyists prefer new features to play with”. Hobbyists are certainly not Embarcadero’s target audience (these people can get the free Community version, so no money to be made from them), so they certainly don’t do it for them.
The features they implement and implemented usually have a solid business background. i.e. in order to be able to make a certain new technology available and usable. They don’t just add features because they are neat to have or nice to play with. I’m pretty sure that even block-local variables (and the now-deferred managed records) were introduced with something else in mind, and we will probably see that in upcoming releases.
But people don’t want bug-fix-only releases, even though thy claim so They want “their” bugs to be fixed, that’s all. The latest Delphis have had several updates, and those were bug-fix only releases. But people keep on asking for “bug-fix releases” because these obviously did not fix their bugs.
jpluimers said
I was actually very happy with the bug-fixes in the 10.1 and 10.2, despite the new features breaking stuff here and there. And there were a lot of new features, those certainly were not bug-fix only releases:
Updates usually are bug-fix only. Not just because of legal grounds, but as of about the last decade out of a necessity. Delphi was ahead of the curve here, as for instance Microsoft and Apple followed suit: their X.0 products now at least need one more bug-fix round before you should install them.
I am all for a year or two of just bug fixes, especially if other bugs than my own are fixed.
Remy said
People have been asking Embarcadero for this for YEARS. Sadly, I don’t think it will ever happen. Especially with mobile platforms being the moving targets that they are, every new release usually needs to include fixes and new features just to maintain the status quo, which is already inadequate to begin with.