Programming is hard. I've been developing control and analysis software for two decades now and have been teaching it for nearly half as long. Sorting through the myriad hardware and communication incompatibilities can be an arduous task that leaves little time to come up for air and view the big picture.
But what I don't understand is the behavior of some of the big software houses, specifically Microsoft. A recognized oldster among a swarm of adolescents, I would expect they would get it right more often then not. My current discomfort is with Microsoft Office 2007. As a beta user of the new release, I've been a long time champion of the new user interface and I believe I understand the logic of the new Ribbon.
My school has upgraded to Office 2007 and I immediately realized MS Access and MS Publisher were not included in our standard package. I guess "upgrading" from Office 2003 to Office 2007 means loosing two-fifths of the applications. Not what I would call progress. As I teach the use of MS Access to my students (should I ask for a salary from Microsoft for teaching how to use their software?), I'm still using version 2003. I guess that is a minor inconvenience...
Yesterday a student submitted her word-processed essay using MS Publisher. I'm in the habit of grading submitted essays electronically using MS Word's comment features. It saves a heck of a lot of printer paper and I have an archive copy of my comments and the grade.
Not having MS Publisher 2003 installed on my laptop at home, I downloaded a 60-day trial of MS Publisher 2007. I figured I had found a work around. But, alas, no such thing. To my dismay, MS Publisher 2007 does not have the "Ribbon" interface of Office 2007 (boy, that is confusing). And after a deep search of the help files, I could not find a comment feature.
Is I mentioned, programming is hard. I get that. I realize a few 100 KLOCs is difficult to manage. But where are the adults looking at the big picture? A component of Office 2007 that looks like Office 2003? Did somebody forget? Did they expect nobody to notice? No comment feature -- is that a sole feature of MS Word? What's the value added in the "Office" suite if not to have similar utilities across all applications?
I've been defending the MS folks since using MBASIC for CP/M. My confidence is beginning to erode.
