Re: NoteMap vs Word

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Note: This message is from the outliners.com archive kindly provided by Dave Winer.

Outliners.com Message ID: 3697

Posted by srdiamond15
2005-08-09 22:05:11

>I think that MS should have money enough by now to do some new development of Word, and not reuse the code from 15-20 years ago ;-)< - Peter

I gather that it’s a question of backward compatibility. And the fact that most users don’t want to change the way they do things. Actually, I think MS’s concern for backward compatibility is fairly admirable, unlike say Apple which has formed the habit of blithely leaving old users in the lurch, when they make a basic change to the operating system. Little wonder that they can produce the most modern operating system around.

And the problem of the user base not wanting to change the way they do things pertains to any program that has a substantial user base. I recently saw an exchange on the ClipMate board (Clipmate’s shareware) where a user suggested a change, and the developer said it was too radical. The change involved only the *option* to have one-click disabling of automatic clip saving. But I accept that the developer probably knows what he’s doing—understands the conservatism of any substantial user base.

Stephen Diamond

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