Re: TTG marketing woes

[Robert Holmgren holmgren@xxxxxxxx]

** Reply to note from Robert Bidinotto <76260.3570@xxxxxxxx> 02/01/96 11:04pm EST

> I'm a writer, not a programmer. Life is very short, which is
> why we specialize, rather than trying to master everything.
>
> A word processor advertising itself as "the writer's tool" (whenever it IS
> advertised) should not require the user to acquire advanced degrees in
> programming as well, or to find or establish a private network of experts simply
> to fix bugs. Sorry, but all that is the job of the company that markets it.
>
> To argue otherwise is to suggest that anyone wishing to turn on an electric
> light switch should first spend four years studying switches and dials at the
> local power plant.

Robert, you argue from wholly false premises. Which tasks that you perform
demand programming skills? Most XyWriters possess no such skills -- never have
and never will. There is no programming requirement, and you know it. And I
can only testify that XyQuest/TTG Tech Support has successfully answered|solved
most of my (often complex) questions.

Its one thing to argue in favor of simple shells or dumbing down -- I mean,
isn't it symptomatic of where we are as a nation that the huge majority of
people haven't a clue what's going on when they do something as elementary as
flip a light switch? could not even begin to describe what electricity
actually is! How much more dangerous this ignorance will be in the computer
arena, in a future totally dominated by computers. It strikes me as perverse
to attack XyWrite for providing (as a supplementary feature) some rudimentary
tools to, and therefore successfully attracting, programmers. To appear to
attack this list for attempting, as a courtesy (or maybe just a pastime), to
field questions we happen to have some knowledge about!


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Robert Holmgren
holmgren@xxxxxxxx
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