I do software development for a living. So I'm pretty certain Empeg has an *official* wish list written down somewhere in the office, with various new features listed with a corresponding version, and maybe a target date for that version. I have also heard that certain features are on target for certain releases (for instance, several 1.1 features have been mentioned by Hugo in this forum.) So, this all begs the question of why these aren't published as a courtesy to customers? It doesn't have to be a "this feature will ABSOLUTELY be in this release." It can be more of a "we're working on this, this, and this for this release, but this will have to wait for the next one." It's clear that Hugo and the other Empeg guys have a roadmap somewhere, and sharing it here on maybe a monthly basis would save a lot of long-winded threads in this very forum. Instead of seven people talking about a feature and then an Empeg rep saying "oh, that's on our list, but not in the next version," there would be clear targets (probably moving targets, but at least they'd be there.)

Just a random thought. Talk amongst yourselves...

-Tony
MkII #554

Yes, Empeg has internal lists for these things, of course they do. I even saw one, in fact, on their intranet (Hugo was peeking at it once with me looking over his shoulder).

They're not going to share these with the general public, though. Their reasons for not sharing have already been addressed in some older threads (anyone have links?), but it's mostly common sense. Other than major features mentioned in marketing materials, you don't see Microsoft sharing their internal wish lists with the public, do you? Guess what, they have good reasons for it. You said yourself: you do software development for a living. Does your company reveal its internal work-process documents to your external customers? Ask your manager why not.

Keep in mind that this BBS is unofficial. Just because the Empeg folks participate doesn't mean we're part of the company. Heck, I'm an alpha tester and I don't know any more about upcoming features than you do.

PS: I think I once asked the exact same question you just did...

___________
Tony Fabris

Wait a sec. I'm not talking about publishing the details of every feature, the design documents, etc. That's obviously not a good idea. However, it's common practice to announce to customers what is in the product pipeline for the next two or three major releases. It's understood by all (and directly stated in most documents) that there's nothing holding them to those features -- it's just so the customer knows what's coming. Microsoft actually does tell the world about their products under development. Of course they don't release their code, but everyone knows almost every feature in a Windows release way before it goes gold. That's all I would expect here.

I think this would not only keep people in the know of what's on the horizon, but as i said in my original post, save a lot of virtual hot air on this very forum. It'd all be on the list. Though the acronym RTFWL might become overused...

I dunno. I just thought if a monthly "here's what we're working on" was readily available, there'd be a lot less mystery surrounding the future software releases. I wasn't expecting a legally binding contract, just a few bulleted lists.

-Tony
MkII #554

as in a ROADMAP



Mark
wait for mk III with a USB Host/slave
(USB->GPS)(USB->Bluetooth)(USB->You name it)

Yep, that's the word I used in my original post. It looks like it's not a popular idea. I guess I can understand why, but it'd be nice to know what's in the pipe.

-Tony
MkII #554