Thank you and good bye! I'm no longer Xara's target audience.

[GerryI]

... as I said before I don't think that there are any developers left at Xara Ltd that actually understand the inner workings of the programme to make such simple changes ... it seems like all superficial work that goes on ... either adding a new extension here or a conservatory there. But no changes to the underlying structure of the vector engine (i.e. the wiring and plumbing of the house) or additional improvements to make it a better drawing tool.

Your thinking is incorrect (as well as somewhat insulting). There are still developers working on this product that have been doing so since the very beginning and there are other developers that have come along since that have a very good understanding of the inner workings. Your description of the recent changes as "superficial work" is grossly inaccurate. The fundamentals of the entire rendering system were rewritten not very long ago (around the time that live effects were introduced) and various of the v5 changes have also required considerable alteration of fundamental parts of the program.

Even an apparently simple change such as symetrical bezier node editing is actually a lot more complex than it appears. Not only does the UI need to be updated but all parts of the program that deal with creating or modifying bezier path objects need to be checked and/or modified to handle the changes in a consistent and logical manner. This would all take a considerable amount of time (which is a very precious commodity in software development) and it has been decided that the time is better spent on features that are more likely to provide a (decent) return on the investment.

Gerry

[behzad]

I did some programming with the commodore 64, back then sold a few video games and can tell you programming is very difficult, God forbid now it is a nightmare, I appreciate and know how difficult it is to make a program like xara.

[Slingshot]

Let's not forget that we're in the middle of a global recession. Even the mighty Adobe's profits have dropped recently. All good companies are busy trying to bolster the bottom line. Now is probably not the time for Xara to be making investments in programming man-hours that may take years to pay off.

[behzad]

love you all, time to unsubscribe from this thread, looking forward to reading more progressive threads on this forum. byee

[Boy]

I do not receive any compensation for moderating Talkgraphics and honestly it is becoming more of a headache these days.

Perhaps it's time for some other compensation: I want to thank you for your enormous and tireless efforts during and after the introduction of Web Designer. You have been most helpful, invariably kind and very quick in helping users with their issues.

You and your fellow moderators have participated at least once in nearly all of the some 1240 threads that were created during a period of only 3 1/2 months! (compare that to the 1107 threads since November 2003 for Webstyle!).

Your presence and approach have put a smile on my face on quite a few occasions, helping to make the learning process even more fun. Your willingness to hunt down causes for possible problems on one of your computer systems and to find solutions for technical or creative issues has often quite surprised me.

You, sledger, gwpriester, covoxer (I'm aware he is not just a volunteer moderator), and some of the other moderators have made frequenting the forums a real pleasure. So, again, thank you!

[Soquili]

Thank you very much. It is good to know our efforts are helping our fellow members.

[pauland]

Yes, I would agree - a big thank you to the moderators. It would be a big mistake to equate any moans about Xtreme as some kind of reflection of the moderation effort.

About the moaning - I'm sometimes guilty as charged - but I've drawn a line under it. Time to accept Xtreme for what it is, Xara can only be steered a little bit, and whining all the time just gives people a headache. I think the developers at Xara are a talented lot, even if they don't always direct that talent where I'd like it to be.

[Soquili]

Thanks Paul.

I hope no one thought I was indicating these type of threads were an indication of bad moderation.

Rather it is too much of the same thing after every new release. As Mike Bailey pointed out with the link to a past thread this is not the first time a member has said "Good Bye".

After nine years and 6 or 7 new versions it does become rather monotonous.

Even if every new feature mentioned in this thread were included, others would be the subject of a similar thread.

[handrawn]

your a good 'un Bill - never known you be anything but helpful, and you are a kind and modest person [here at least ] and that really is appreciated

I can't remember the last time I saw Soquili break out in a rash of undignified ego, most likely because it has never happened

oh and the other mods are ok too

my but this thread is drifting ....

[pauland]

Just think of it as squabbles in the Xara family. A lot of people, myself included, were pretty dissappointed with Xtreme 5 and because we do like Xara so much it is a frustration to see your best friend go down a different road to that which you'd like to travel, even if there are new people on the scene encouraging that course of action.