🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <Bvyyx0.K3D@vuse.vanderbilt.edu> jem@vuse.vanderbilt.edu (John Eric Meyer) writes:
>I recently received an advertisement for the MultiScope Debugger v2.0 for
>BC++3.0 and 3.1, MSC 6.0 and c/c++7.0 (and I understand it works with
>Zortech as well).  

 I just received my $99 special from them, and spent the weekend playing
with it.  My reaction is very mixed.  It's certainly better than
CodeView, but it has some really annoying limitations and dis-features.

 First, you have to buy different versions of MultiScope for different
language environments.  The Borland version supports C/C++ 3.1 and TASM;
the MSC/6 version supports C,MASM,Pascal; and the MSC/C++ 7.0 version
supports only C/C++.  Being an MSC/C++ 7.0 user, I felt somewhat ripped
off by the lack of MASM support in my version of the debugger.

 Next, the interface needs to be re-done by someone with design
experience.  The most annoying dis-features are the blindingly garish
color combinations (coupled with a restricted ability to modify the color
settings); the ability to choose font-size ("tiny, small, medium, large,
and huge") but not the font or the font-style (this capability would
have helped with the readability issues caused by the color problem);
and menus on MDI-style child-windows that don't behave properly. There
are a number of other minor annoyances that become tremendously
irritating after prolonged use.

 The documentation also needs some work.  In the tutorial, for example,
the author went on for an entire paragraph with instructions for
re-sizing one of the debugging windows ("Move the cursor to the right
side of the window, until it looks like ''<->''. Then, holding down the
left mouse-button, drag..." etc.) One would assume that, if a person is
developing Windows software s/he would know how to re-size a window...
In other places, it was vague about why certain actions were being
performed; not good for a tutorial.

 Finally, while debugging a very simple program, I was able to get
MultiScope to hang up Windows more or less reliably; all I had to do was
to iconify MultiScope while in the middle of the debug session. This happened 
more than once using their tutorial as well.

 In short, I feel rather like I just paid $99 to be one of their
beta-testers.  While I think that this tool has a lot of potential, I
didn't get the impression that it was a very well-polished program.


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	* Art Baker			| Joy and fierceness...	  *
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