[Manifold-l] FW: 7x display issues

[Dimitri Rotow]

> Part of my problem is I found tech not very useful when 
> reporting bugs in the past, they always wanted a copy of the 


This is a conceptual disconnect:  tech is not supposed to be "useful" when
people report bugs.  Please re-read the Technical Support topic once more to
make sure you have your expectations correctly calibrated.  When you report
a bug, you should not expect to get anything back, not even a one-word
acknowledgement.

> project (not possible, clients don't like it), details of 
> what you version and hardware, etc  which used to be followed 
> by a support email telling me I have used up all my credits.
> 

In some cases if you report a bug tech may contact you to ask questions.  If
you don't want to participate in that, that's OK.  Keep in mind that
virtually all "bug reports" are user errors, not bugs.  True bugs are rare,
and quite often the only way to tell the difference between a user error and
a true bug is by working down every last, nit-picking detail.


> by a support email telling me I have used up all my credits.
> 

This could not have happened for, what, two years? as long ago tech support
went to a token system.  You might have gotten an email recently that no
token was provided but no way an email stating you've used up all your
incidents.

I should also note that in any case if you report a bug you don't get any
answerback about incidents.  You only get that if you encase a question for
tech support within a "bug report."  [See the discussion in the "Technical
Support" topic...]

For example, an email of the form "I've found a terrible bug in Manifold: it
[insert problem here].  How do I work around that?  Can I [insert a series
of questions here]?" ... is not a bug report.  It is a request for technical
support.  

The bottom line is that manifold.net gratefully receives all bug reports and
goes through each and every one of them even though we know perfectly well
that virtually all "bug reports" will ultimately be traced to user errors or
other non-Manifold issues (Windows permissions, errata in connecting to
remote DBMS, etc.)  A classic example is the recent thread on the forum
where the "failure" of IMS to display images sometimes was traced to a bug
in a guy's network setup where a DoS-protective routine totally unrelated to
Manifold had a bug in it.  That's OK.  Our folks would rather investigate
1000 false alarms to find one true bug than miss that bug.

>  
> 
> All we really need to do is have a way of reporting the bug 
> with as much info as we can or are willing to give at the 
> time.  I don't expect a reply.  This way at least Manifold 
> would become aware of the problems.
> 

I am pleased to report that's exactly how the current system functions, so
we can be in violent agreement on that. :-)  See the discussion in the
Technical Support topic.

Cheers,

Dimitri