XX5 - Woooo! Another Let Down

[JokeArtist]

I have only heard whining for more drawing tools for a few years... better practice a little more on your whining and crying skills.

Well done you ... give yourself a well deserved pat on the back.

[kinetica]

The graphics world is much larger than pure vector drawing.

I think that's the whole point. Xara Xtreme has always been first and foremost a vector graphics application, but now it's turning, no doubt for economically sound, market-driven reasons, into an "all things to all men" all-round graphics program, jack of all trades and master of none. It's understandable, therefore, that those vector enthusiasts who have cried out for certain vector tool improvements for a long time should be disappointed. It also doesn't help that the people at Xara tell us absolutely nothing until the day of launch. I mean, look at the Dear Xara forum... loads of requests and nary a peep from Xara towers.

Anyway, I'll definitely pay my £49 to upgrade, because I'm a self-confessed Xara fanboy!

[iamtheblues]

Very well said, Dave. This surely echoes the feelings of a lot of members.
By the way, the new avatar is superb - joint #1 with Bob Hahn's.
Saludos,
Bob.

[handrawn]

It also doesn't help that the people at Xara tell us absolutely nothing until the day of launch. I mean, look at the Dear Xara forum... loads of requests and nary a peep from Xara towers.

not strictly true - the freehand tool enhancement and the multi-stage transparency were announced ahead of release, and the inclusion of XWD features was a fair bet

as for the general silence - that's for sound commercial reasons

BTW: if you don't have a product that will sell well, soon you will have no product at all, and those that have not yet got the enhancements they seek will then never get them... current financial climate does not help

and sometimes you have to do things in a certain order.... to facilitate what people are asking for... that includes rewriting code for example, which takes a while and should not be rushed

[kinetica]

By the way, the new avatar is superb

You don't find it looks a little cynical? Maybe I need a more cheerful one now that XXP5 is out

BTW: if you don't have a product that will sell well, soon you will have no product at all ... >

Agreed, which is why I said "no doubt for economically sound, market-driven reasons". But it is evident from the posts to date that a significant proportion of users are disappointed. And that would have included you were it not for a couple of new features. That's really all I was saying.

[Tallis]

Reading about the new version, and what/why features are still missing, I came to think about society in general. The taxpayers supporting the deadbeats. The hard working supporting the loafers. I think in this instance, it's the web/html market that is "supporting" the vector people, in a good way.

If Xara had thought more vector tools would double profits, they would have done it already, no questions asked. But apparently, html tools and the web market mean more bang for the development buck in the near term, and hence the focus. I would guess that although xara would have wanted to improve vector tools, it would have been a continued coasting of sales, where the "all things, all people" approach brings in more immediate revenue, in order to keep the company going, hopefully to, next, implement more vector tools. Still, the program doesn't seem to have ballooned to magix proportions, so "all things to all people" for xara development people is more like "smart things for smart people"-- still keeping it lean and mean-- program size and performance that it.

So the html tools can more broadly sell more of the product, allowing revenue to be now used for vector development as well.

I hope I have that right....

[handrawn]

I think so

[w00dy]

Earlier in the year, I made a post along the lines of "couldn't see where Xara was going" and "is a great British software institution going to go to the wall", then along came Web Designer. OK, I'm no graphics guru, web design is my little niche, so XWD was a most welcome addition to the Xara stable.

It is realistic to expect that a lot of people will make the move from Web Designer to Xtreme, after all what is the extra £29, it's peanuts! This will open their eyes to the potential of Xtreme in other areas and maybe they'll end up going for Pro, so in a roundabout way, the advent of the web capability could be the sprat that catches the mackerel.

When I was involved in football, it was a case of "bums on seats", when you came up from the boardroom, you first looked how many people were in the ground, not who was playing in the team. I'd imagine software houses are no different, it's about how many licences you sell, everything else is a bonus. Roll the clock back twenty years and look at Impression and Artworks, the cutting edge programs of their day but wrong platform, you have to evolve to survive and Xara has. For a basic site, I think that the code-slinging purists now have a fight on their hands.

Not what a graphics artist might want to hear but from a web designers perspective, pretty good. Look ahead to Xara Xtreme 6 and think what the web capabilities might be then!

[JokeArtist]

Look ahead to Xara Xtreme 6 and think what the web capabilities might be then!

No! Argh! Please God No!

I'm a web designer ... I've played about with XWD ... it's complex and gives crappy outputs ... not acceptable for a professional job for a client.

I've not upgraded since 3.2 and would have paid at least £200 for some new vector tools because I love xara for drawing ... but for nothing else. Period.

[Sponsi]

JokeArtist - that is SO true what you've written!