Quite often, in the development of conceptual products, new avenues-algorithms- methods- logic- permutations-... arise. Placing them into a code that works in digital is the science we are seeing. The magnetic universe that has been and is, music, is a part of this process. Technical nightmare.

stevec

Now that would be awesome for us end users and profitable for Rolawalk.

 
As a consumer I'm thinking yeah, that might be cool.   As someone who's worked for a fairly large software company for 15+ years, I'm thinking it sounds like a nightmare from a development/QA/support perspective.  Especially for something like the Track Lanes/Layers aspect which (I assume) is two entirely different sets of code.   That kind of thing could result in so many permutations of an already large set of features, which in turn would likely result in less resources to actually develop and test said features.  And I'd imagine Roland/CW has limited resources all around these days...  who doesn't. 
 
Maybe if it was a matter of your license simply enabling or disabling *existing* features, sort of like the Essentials/Studio/Producer concept, it could be feasible (development-wise).  Though it still might be unweildy from a support and customer service angle - "so you have SONAR X4 and you can't see Track Lanes.  Did you purchase that option?  Yes, it's part of the comping module but not the extended viewing options package.  Oh, you're not sure which one you have....? ".     
 

I hadn't considered that side before Steve.
I can see your point.


There has to be some sort of happy medium I would think, no?


Mike

I hadn't considered that side before Steve. I can see your point. There has to be some sort of happy medium I would think, no?

 
Yeah... When you've experienced a software development environment from the inside things do tend to take a different spin.   Honestly, I rather enjoy the "outside" view I have with SONAR vs. my work, but unfortunately I can't help but inject personal experience.  
 
I think the happy medium at this point *is* the Essentials/Studio/Producer breakdown.   When CW introduced Expanded for X1, that alone caused so much confusion that I can't image what a piecemeal version of SONAR would actually look like.   OK, maybe I actually *can* imagine it, and I think it would be nice to select the modules you want to use/license.   But my personal vote is for CW to keeping squashing bugs/glitches, and to keep enhancing the product - Track Lane tweaks, PC features, maybe a little SV love, etc.    I would take those type of things over anything else.    And since X2a is very stable for me at this point, I'm not against an X2.5 or X3 or whatever the next version might be called.     I know not everyone is in the same boat though...
 

Edit: duplicate post courtesy of a recent IE9 upgrade.

  The support issue is easy. Snapshot configs. "Please generate a configuration file. Under Tools => Support => Generate config file. Email that file to me. that will tell me how your system is set up. From there, I can duplicate your settings on my machine and see if I see the same issue." 

(One email later...) "Ok, it looks like you purchased the Take Lanes option, but didn't enable it. Go under Tools => Support => License, and select to enable that option. then restart Sonar. You should see them then. If not, I can walk you through it or jump on your system to check it out there."

This also generates more development jobs. Yes, it's more code, but it's better than a team of developers trying to sift through tons of outdated code, because it's all one big glob vs. a more modular, frame approach. Plus, and here is the smart bit, if one module or part of the code needs repair (i.e. bugs squashed), it doesn't require a fully loaded patch (X2a, X2b, X2c, etc.), it only requires a much smaller dll replacement patch, perhaps. It sounds tedious, but c'mon guys, this IS the more modern way to do this. Microsoft uses Auto-Updates. So do many others (Apple, Adobe, FireFox, etc.) This is not a new idea, and it works. Suspect a bad update, Revert the update. The previous dll is saved in an archived directory. It can easily be restored.

Well, these are my wishes, anyway.

Sonar seems in some respects comparable to the Millennium Falcon... It's a great ship, you love it, it's got a lot of special features and nifty gadgets, but in some areas it's still a "bucket of bolts" that just can't seem to make the jump to lightspeed. And even some upgrades at Cloud City don't quite push it out of that oh so persistent danger zone... not until a noble little mechanic gets in there and FINALLY gets the hyperdrive good and truly running. From that point on, it may still be a little rough around the edges, but boy, it sure does handle like a dream...

/nerdalogy

(PS: I too hope for a really solid X2b that helps a lot of people out here before the marketing dept starts pushing X3 at all!)

If it were me, I'd do 2 things:

1) I'd be reading these forums, particularly about this very issue to see just how the existing customer base thinks & feels; 

2) I'd announce that X2b [or whatever it would be called] is being worked on with a tentative release date to inspire hope, confidence & to keep the customer base hangin' in here.

Especially since they know just how well one of their competitors in particular has grown quite popular very quickly.

You can bet that's what's being done 'over there'. 

That's were the 'smart money' is - and it's been working terrific for them!