Why I Hate Programming

It's always the same.  No matter how much testing we do, as soon as we release ADE to production the bugs start flooding in.  Worse is the unforced programmer errors and general SNAFUs that follow.  The rule is never change functionality when you make a new release - so why am I incapable of sticking to it without tinkering?  Case in point was a small change that enabled a function for one version of the simulator.  The trail of chaos and destruction that followed makes me hate what I do.  The change generated the usual cascade of unexpected consequences followed  by apologetic posts on the forums and a rash of daily updates.  It must drive users nuts to get a new update every day - it would me.

Ho hum - well right now I am going to do something else - destroy a bit more of the house so that we can start again I think.  Nothing like wielding a crowbar and sledge hammer to get out the frustrations with one's own failings.

Ah - well I feel better having written this so I think I don't hate programming after all!

4 responses
First off, well done all round with ADE9X Jon. Don't think I've ever seen a product which is as vigilantly updated as yours is - whatever the reasons. That you stay on top of things is a testament to your dedication to your product. You should be commended for your efforts. I'm assuming what you're referring to above was the recent glitch in v1.65 (ADE9 mode) in which one could not edit (or assign) coordinates of any object. I'd been happily doing a couple airports recently in ADEX mode, but being reminded constantly of my dissatisfaction with FSX (buggy on my system), I thought I'd start another airport in using ADE9/FS9. That's when I discovered - much to my chagrin - your unusual bug. Alas not, I simply reverted to using v1.61 which is still installed in a separate folder on my system. Having just read your post, I've re-run v1.65 for the update and voilà, the coordinate edit bug in ADE9 mode is gone. Very nice. :D One thing I do note though, having been using v1.61 for the past few days, I have noticed how much smoother its rendering/graphic engine is over v1.65. Scrolling/panning is smooth and effortless even with GoogleEarth/VirtualEarth satellite background images (5 tiles, all
Wow... now there's something. Part of my post got cut off. Re: satellite images: ..."(5 tiles, all *less than* 1MB in size)" - I used the 'less than' symbol rather than spelling it out which cut my sentence off... It seems dynamic html doesn't like special characters... :P Cheers!
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