Author: John Merlino
Date: 11:12:27 12/15/99
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On December 15, 1999 at 01:25:36, Michael Cummings wrote: >On December 14, 1999 at 17:40:31, John Merlino wrote: >> >>The patch is currently in test. The development team tells me that this is NOT >>guaranteed to be the final patch. They have addressed all of the major bugs (and >>most of the minor ones) that were reported. They tell me, however, that although >>the "infinite analysis" feature is in an apparently working, it is probably >>going to be held off until the next patch. >> >>This patch was mainly designed to make sure that everybody who currently has >>problems (as well as those who may have problems when they fire up the program >>for the first time on December 25th) will have a patch ready to download. >> >>New features (i.e. the infinite analysis) is not high on the priority list of >>those who make these kinds of decisions; they would rather make the program less >>buggy and don't want to risk tossing in a new feature that may cause new >>problems. Therefore, infinite analysis will likely come in a later patch after >>it has been more thoroughly tested. >> >>This patch will probably go live early next week. >> >>jm > >Ah CM7K, I have not bothered with this program since it was released. I say >there should be about 3 patches like CM6K for them to finally get it right. But >on the other hand they are already putting this in priority status for the bugs. >So my guess is that once they get the patch to make the program run well then >they will forget about any of the finer details and leave it at that. Well, to be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if that turned out to be the case. I have told them time and again that the infinite analysis feature should have been in the initial release, and they agree with me. Unfortunately, it just caused too many problems and was not considered an important enough feature (remember that the people on this board represent a VERY small portion of the target audience). They have put the feature in, but it APPEARS to be causing oddities in other areas and it needs to be explored further. Fixing bugs was obviously a higher priority and nobody can really argue with that. > >Mindscape does not seem to be commited to chess anymore. And I just love the way >they seem to know the program is not perfect but we will fix a few things and >will wait, if no more complaints come in then this will be the first and last >patch for CM7K. I can tell you with all certainty that Mattel had NOTHING to do with ANY decision making process regarding CM7000. They didn't have the time to be bothered with such a relatively small part of the puzzle that involved Mattel, The Learning Company, Mindscape, Broderbund, PF Magic, and all of the programs that they release. It DOES remain to be seen how much Mattel will be committed to the Chessmaster series and Mindscape will have little choice except to do what Mattel tells them to. They DO seem to be open to reason at this stage, however.... ;-) > >They do not want to risk tossing in more things. I accept that, if they made >such a mess of the program I do not trust them to add anythig new, let alone fix >what they have. > >And maybe you could ask them if when they say still testing it, testing to see >if the patch actually runs. Cause the so called development team seem to >develope but not test what they develope. This comment does not even warrant a response, although the 8 developers and the 10 testers who beta tested the program for almost two months might disagree with me. > >I hope you pass my comments onto the developement team to show how pissed I >still am at them for stuffing up my computer. I can only hope and prey that the >developement team is only worried about the patch cause they are a new >development team cause the others were given the boot for their failure to >deliver a product of value. And that they need time to sort out the mess from >the old under development team. > The development team is very much aware of how upset you are at CM7000, and it HAS bothered them to no small degree, especially since you were one of the most vocal proponents of the series on ICD. They appreciated how much you stuck your neck out against the (obviously) unfair wave of criticism against the program, and partied with you when it finally topped the SSDF list. Unfortunately, I feel you need to be corrected on a few significant points here. The development team for CM7000 is exactly the same team that was on CM6000 and almost exactly the same team that was on CM5500. No one was ever "given the boot" (at least not since the head of the CM5000 team "resigned" after the project was VERY late with very little progress -- this was about 4 years ago), and there is no "mess that needs to be sorted out". >I just question the quality of the company who can release a program with so >many bugs. All programs have bugs, but there is a limit to the acceptable >amounts. As for the number of bugs in CM7000, as compared to CM6000, the facts disagree with you. In actuality, the number of unique bugs reported is about 1/4 of the number of bugs that were reported in the initial release of CM6000 (remember all of bugs in the tutorials for CM6K?). The number of people reporting bugs was also way down (almost 1/2 of the number of people who reported bugs for CM6000). In other words, despite your opinion about the program (which you are certainly entitled to), the development team feels that CM7000 was a success. > >John cause you work for Midscape or matel, this is not a comment against you, >that is unless you programmed CM7K or was a person in charge who allowed this to >be realeased, then it is. :) I have no problem either way. ;-) Hopefully the patch will get you up and running and we can all be serenaded once again with the beautiful strains of you praising Chessmaster to the heavens.... ;-) jm p.s. The development team tells me that I should prepare any of you for something in the patch that may cause some confusion. The patch will (probably) be called version 1.0.5. The readme file will state that there was a previous version called 1.0.3, which I'm sure that none of you have ever seen. This was an interim patch that you only would have received if you had tried to play on MPlayer, at which point you would have automatically downloaded version 1.0.3, if you had agreed to the upgrade. The patch for version 1.0.5 will, of course, include all of the fixes that was in 1.0.3. I hope that clears up anything in advance....
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