[news.eclipse.technology.jsr220-orm] Re: JSR243 support in JSR220ORM pro

[Luc <ljgp@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Robert,

Thanks for your explanation. I am sure Versant is doing things right 
when looked at from many perspectives. From a perspective of a current 
customer, some things look less good:

- Your story about change of direction has _never_ been actively 
communicated to customers (at least not to the company I am currently 
working for). We had to find out by reading forums, deducing things from 
release announcements in an open source project, and then asking 
questions about it.

- Bug fixes for the current software are taking longer and longer, we 
have a substantial list of _non trivial_ issues that have only partly 
been fixed in 3.2.19. For this interim release we had to wait almost 3 
months.

- Answers to questions take much longer than before, of course we get a 
polite reply from support but then we have to wait too long for the real 
answers. Questions on the Versant product forums nowadsays also often go 
unanswered for days and days.

At the same time that we are waiting for bug fixes and answers, we see 
new releases, documentation, etc appear in the Eclipse project.

> software industry these days.  If you want to be a well known and respected
> company in the Java community ( getting in ) these days, you need to get
> involved in some community service in addition to just making the best
> product ( grades ).   Versant is committed to both providing the best
> products we can and at the same time being a good community member.

I am sure Versant has the best intentions and really wants to serve both 
well (community, customers). IMHO right now its communication and 
execution towards current customers could be a lot better.

Regards, Luc.