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I like LabVIEW and NI - but this could be a little too close to home for those guys to feel entirely comfortable

2011 is only going to be as good as the Beta testers make it. That da#$ EULA for the Beta's (paraphrasing now... if you run into trouble with the beta code, please report the issue but don't count on us to help..) keeps all of the serious development testing out of the picture until the official release. As long as there is just a bunch of people poke around the theri spare time on toy projects. G-Story One of the most solid version of LV was LV 6.1. AS i understand the back story, Albert Gevens really beat that Beta version up. His work was so important in version 6.1 that NI recognized him for his efforts and made him a ... MVP or a Featured Developers or some such. What I feel would fix the buggey releases: Cash. NI should go through thier records of bug reports and find a core set of bug-hunters and approach them about paying them to develop in the beta version, AND back them up with a commitment to fix any bug they find prior to the offical release. From where I sit I am still seeing the same pattern repeateded over and over. "dot-zero" version released and I sit back and wait for the bug reports. I avoid upgrading except where my customers have selected the blue pill and I am forced to take the dive into the hole with them. The I go into a routine where I am calling support almost daily with conversation that end with "Well senf me an e-mail with the CAR number and I have a hrad time believing anyone who knows what they are doing actually tested this!". 2010 story NITS here in Pittsburgh, I was selected to do the Darren routine about the new features in LV 2010. So blew through his material in about 15 minutes and started answer random questions from the crowd when I found myself trying to edit the icon while they watched. Little did I realize the "New and degraded" icon editor was busting full of bugs ( ctrl-V double paste, no drag after select argh!!!). I don't think any of the crowd realized I was dealing with a bug because I stopped and "Pulled a cake out of the oven" to show the final results. As a consultatant I also find the bugs particulary frustrating because I have to deal with customers asking "Why do you like LabVIEW so much if they are shipping crap?" I did not expect this post to turn into a rant but I guess it did. Ben