NYCPHP Meetup

[Analysis & Solutions]

Hey Folks:

Here's the note I just fired off to Zeev about my experiences with their 
site and the new Zend Studio IDE.

--Dan


----- Forwarded message from Analysis & Solutions <danielc at analysisandsolutions.com> -----

From: Analysis & Solutions <danielc at analysisandsolutions.com>
To: zeev at zend.com
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 2003 02:24:20 -0400
Subject: TONS of difficulties getting/using Studio 3

Greetings Zeev:

Congratulations on launching version 3 of Zend Studio.  Daniel Kushner
provided a demonstration of the IDE at the September meeting of the NYPHP
group.  I subsequently downloaded the package for a test spin.

Unfortunately, nearly every step of the process was problematic.  So, like
the version 2.6 I tried a while back, the problems outweighed the
price/benefit ratio, so I decided not to purchase the IDE at this point.  
Here's what happened.

* Discount Period
Thank you for providing a 50% discount code for the NYPHP group.  The
code's expiration date offered only three days for playing with things.  
This rubbed me the wrong way.

* Upgrade Terms
The one year upgrade period also seems unusually short.

* Website Advanced Search
Submitting terms from the Advanced Search form lead (and still does) to a
nonexistent page.

* Website Contact Form Bugs
I went to report the search problem via the contact form.  Upon submitting 
it, there was no indication that there was an error nor that the message 
was sent.  I subsequently realized this was because I'd left off the 
browser, which was a required field.  A warning should have been provided.

* Website's VERY Small Fonts
Fonts on the site are set via px.  Worse, they're set to a very small px 
size.  Lower case letters wind up being only 1.5mm tall on my screen.  
OUCH!

* Website Information Center Requires JavaScript
This section is completely useless without JavaScript turned on.  This is
unnecessary -- particularly from the makers of the world's greatest server
side language.  Worse, no message is displayed saying JS is needed.  All 
one sees is the navigation links and two blank panes below.

* Download
Downloading the files requires cookies and JavaScript.  Again, not 
only is this lame, there's no indication that this is the case.

* Activation Information Email
This email wound up being a huge chunk of HTML marketing crap.  It wound 
up getting cought by my spam filters.  Geez.  All we need is the 
activation code, please.

* Installation: Choose Components
On Windows 2000, this dialog box has the background color hard coded to 
white, while the text color is left to Windows' default window text 
color... which on my system is white.  Makes this screen impossible to 
read.

* Colors of File/Project Pane & Code Completion Box
Similar background color settings conflicts occurred in the IDE itself.

* PHP Version Warning
I'm using development builds of PHP 5 on my system.  So, when the 
debugger system is turned on, I get a series of message box warnings for 
each HTTP request.  No fun.

* Debug/Profile Command Line Scripts
The IDE GUI doesn't have the ability to deal with command line scripts.
This is a major shortcomming for me, since these are my biggest projects. 
Users should be able to type in a script name and arguments and have the 
system debug/profile the results.


I hope these experiences provide guidance for improving Zend's website and 
software.  If you have any questions, please let me know.

L'shana tovah, if you're into that stuff.

Thanks,

--Dan

Daniel Convissor

----- End forwarded message -----

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