I used to write CAD software for the design of electronic chips ( the things that sit on circuit boards ).

I used to write software that did things like analysing the connections between transistors within the chip. Fun stuff.

Engineers used to come to me saying they had problem X and could I solve this problem using software or alert them when some particular problem might occur. It was an easy problem for them to describe so they assumed that software could be easily written to help them.

Most of the time we could help. Other times we had to explain that the simple problem they described would be fiendishly difficult for software to diagnose.

The other side of the coin is that I would go and see them and they would be scratching their head because of some issue. They tell me about it and I'd ask why they hadn't come to me earlier because I could easily solve their problem. They hadn't come to me because they thought the problem was so difficult that I couldn't possibly help.

As a programmer I love solving problems. Most of us do. I would love to write the connector software for connected diagrams like Visio. The concept may be easy but in practice it's a bit more complicated.

I'm sure Xara's tech developers would love to write that software, but it's more about management balancing priorities ( available manpower, money and user demands ) to make the software profitable.

Connected diagrams are a niche use, so I can understand why Xara might not see that as a priority over other features.