[Coco] DriveWire survey results

[Aaron Wolfe]

I should have had a question about that kind of thing on the survey.. doh.

Personally I dislike programs that "phone home", so I've always been
hesitant to add those types of things.  OTOH they do have clear value
in some cases.  I do use them in some of my commercial software.

Right now, DW will only go check for new versions if you tell it to,
and it will only send diagnostic information to me if you tell it to.
It can actually send very detailed usage and environment info, but
only if the user decides they want to do that. So the capabilities are
all there, just not automated.

In reality, all this has done for me so far is to ensure that at least
once a week, somebody using an old version submits a bug report about
something long ago fixed :(  Usually they don't include any contact
info (they can, but DW doesn't require it when submitting a bug
report) so I just hang my head in sorrow.

Anyway... I could make the usage reporting automatic with very little
effort, assuming people don't mind.  Or maybe have an opt-in or out
option in the setup wizard.  It's a good idea.

-Aaron


On Fri, Jun 20, 2014 at 3:58 PM, Steve <6809er at srbsoftware.com> wrote:
> Aaron,
>
> Since you software already "phones home" to check for the latest version,
> you should have it keep track usage data and problems to report back to you.
>
> This would give you a much better idea of how your software is being used
> and where to improve it. While this only reports on operational use and
> problems (not features to add), it goes a long ways in letting you know
> where you need to improve the current software.
>
> This has help with all the apps and server side code that I write these
> days.
>
> Steve
>
>
>
> On 6/20/2014 12:29 PM, Aaron Wolfe wrote:
>>
>> Thanks to everyone that took the time to contribute their thoughts.
>>
>> You can see the results here:
>>
>>
>> https://docs.google.com/a/aaronwolfe.com/forms/d/1vXEJPPnz4cQhhMun01AE-9aqEKDBf3iMzu3qihgwVZc/viewanalytics
>>
>> Some thoughts:
>>
>> It looks like nearly noone uses Coco 1 or 2s.  That surprised me.
>> However, we do have plenty of Dragon users.
>>
>> BASIC vs OS9 remains about an even split.
>>
>> Linux is more used than I knew.  I will put more effort into making
>> future versions smooth on Linux.
>>
>> For the "how do you use drivewire section", all I see is that almost
>> everyone uses it for existing local disk images.  the answers for
>> downloading/exploring new software and writing new software are even
>> across the board from never to always..
>>
>> the "priorities" section has some clear information.  disk services
>> and networking services are very popular.  MIDI is somewhat hated :(
>> The others are pretty flat I guess.  So.. disk and networking will get
>> the most love going forward.  MIDI stays if for no reason other than I
>> like it :)
>>
>> -Aaron
>>
>
>
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