LabVIEW Idea Exchange

cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 
MGiacomet

NI: please fix long standing bugs before creating more features

Status: Declined

Any idea that has received less than 3 kudos within 3 years after posting will be automatically declined.

Would be nice if NI would concentrate on fixing long standing bugs instead of creating new features dreamed by marketing...

 

There are threads in the forum about bugs that have been going on for 4-5 years! Ouch! They are there and it is not an excuse to say "we can't reproduce". Some bugs (intermittent or the type "we can't reproduce", have to be fixed by analysis, not by single stepping through the code. If one can't reproduce in the "clean lab" environment, analysis of the existing code is needed to find what could be causing the problem by the Customers.

 

We all experience them, don't we? So they are out there...

19 Comments
crossrulz
Knight of NI

Then make sure you submit your crash reports and supply code when you find a bug.

 

This last release (2014) did not really have that many features.  It had a bunch of bug fixes though.  I really wish NI would have pushed this aspect more.  And I have been told that NI is working on refactoring some of the the really old code (I may have already said too much).  These will fix some of these bugs too.

 

And just because there is an "old" thread saying there is a bug doesn't mean it hasn't been fixed or is being worked.  Jeff-P can only track so many threads.

 

Long story short, NI is working these bugs.  It is just a matter of finding the cause and then figuring out how to fix them.


GCentral
There are only two ways to tell somebody thanks: Kudos and Marked Solutions
Unofficial Forum Rules and Guidelines
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God" - 2 Corinthians 3:5
jcarmody
Trusted Enthusiast

I wonder if the difference isn't driven by economics.  New features will appeal to more people than the few that are affected by obscure bugs.  I know that I have too much in my backlog to fix a few of the bugs that only occasionally cause pain.

Jim
You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. ~ Alice
For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur? Eccl. 8:7

PaulG.
Active Participant

"Doctor, my code crashes when I do this." "Then don't do that."

PaulG.

LabVIEW versions 5.0 - 2020

“All programmers are optimists”
― Frederick P. Brooks Jr.
AristosQueue (NI)
NI Employee (retired)

Users: Please pay for bug fixes instead of for new features!

🙂

 

Just kidding. I -- and National Instruments -- recognize the problem that bugs create for our users, but there is an economic reality that none of us can ignore. User jcarmody highlighted the issue rightly. It is new features that pay salaries to let us continue fixing bugs. From a customer point of view, you already paid for the software, your vendor should make it work. Unfortunately, fixing bugs still requires money, and I've never met any software team that can fund their ongoing bug fixing efforts without providing new features to keep users coming back.

 

Many have noticed the reduced list of new features in 2014 compared to previous LV versions. We are focusing more and more on the stability, but that cannot be an exclusive focus, ever, or we simply won't be shipping another version. The economics just don't work out. And there are bugs that are just not profitable to fix in current conditions (such bugs get addressed during major refactoring operations, not as individual issues). You note bugs that go back 4 and 5 years. I can highlight bugs in both our software and in software from other vendors that go back a lot further than that. Check out the shortcut key issue in Firefox. Dates from 2001 and remains unfixed and gets reported anew by users very regularly. Comments from developers about how they wish they could fix this, and how there are long term plans to refactor to fix it are true of certain bugs in every significant piece of software I know about. https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=78414 

 

Even a particularly common bug may not be fixable with the resources available for bug fixing.

 

This is not unique to NI. Something has to provide the developers an income stream to do bug fixes. If you aren't independently wealthy doing software out of the goodness of your heart, you have to have a product to sell. And only new features sell.

X.
Trusted Enthusiast
Trusted Enthusiast

Check this thread and the list of other threads I linked to in my comment to it: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/HABF-A-New-Platform-for-Issue-Tracking-in-LabVIEW-IDE/...

You will also certainly like this one too: http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW-Idea-Exchange/Make-updating-the-GUI-a-priority-in-a-near-term-LabVIE...

And this one will let you measure the depth of our problem: http://forums.ni.com/t5/BreakPoint/Bug-thread-discussion/m-p/235476 and here is where the monthly bug threads start: http://forums.ni.com/t5/BreakPoint/Monthly-bugs-July-2005/m-p/235383

 

@AQ: A keyboard shortcut problem in an open source product (and from what I read, this is an issue with plugins)? Talk about the wrong counter example.

AristosQueue (NI)
NI Employee (retired)

X: I find it very analogous. Your opinion may differ.

RavensFan
Knight of NI

I think it is an appropriate counter example.  If you have an open source project where the bugs are known and anyone is capable of trying to fix the bug unencumbered by other priorites, then you'd think they would have been able to fix it.  Yet after 13 years it still hasn't been fixed ...... ?  It shows that some bugs are just too big to get fixed.

Intaris
Proven Zealot

I could be cheeky here and comment that in order to get rid of the most annoying and counterproductive bugs, NI DOES offer a lot of training courses....

jcarmody
Trusted Enthusiast

PEBKAC 😄

Jim
You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. ~ Alice
For he does not know what will happen; So who can tell him when it will occur? Eccl. 8:7

MGiacomet
Member

Not surprising the "explanation" by AristosQueue (NI)...

 

>>It is new features that pay salaries to let us continue fixing bugs.

Really??? In most companies bug fixes are funded by maintenance/license renewals, not by "sales".

 

To compare freeware (Firefox) with payware (LV) makes me laugh.