Submitted by Jon on 2013/04/18 09:56

First the grouses in no particular order:


 

1. Over the years I have strongly recommended IQ to many friends and colleagues. Many have found IQ to be very useful, but all have been daunted by the learning curve. The show stoppers (see below) have turned many away from IQ, and I admit to be growing weary of these too.


 

2. Printing, while improved remains abysmal. Many of the settings are not remembered and this causes needless repetition.


 

3. Undo is very dicey. It is an improvement over several years ago, but it has no resemblance to undo in other programs. I find that I cannot rely on undo to restore most mistakes. This is a constant complaint from others.


 

4. IQ 1.0 was supposed to be realized YEARS ago. While stable, we are still in beta. Simply put, there are many who use only releases. I understand that this is a one person undertaking and that life intervenes. Still, this is a long gestation.


 

5. Years ago, Pierre was very active in his participation in this and other forums. I hope the marked decline in his presence is not indicative of waning development or interest.


 

6. While not essential, outline styles were promised. I know Pierre explained that priorities had to be shifted because of IE10, but this was promised a long time ago.


 

7. Similarly pivot tables, independent of MS Office were supposed to make their debut.

 

8. Auto-refresh does not. I get frequent reports from panicked colleagues who say that one or more entries are lost. These are accomplished and intelligent people who know their way around software. It turns out that this is not due to a mis-assigned grid. Hitting refresh restores the missing information. This has happened to me as well. I have not detected a pattern as yet, but it is obviously frustrating and to others, very disconcerting.


 

On to the gantt:


 

1. I know that this is a subset of the outliner and that because of this, the gantt chart takes a minor supporting role. For me, a gantt chart is a very important organizational tool. This one does not work well.


 

2. I have raised usability issues focusing on the overview, but affecting the usability of the gannt chart in http://www.sqlnotes.net/drupal5/index.php?q=node/2744. This has not been addressed.


 

3. Creating a time line for an item by dragging the bar does not work (at least for me). The time line shifts to dates/times I have not specified. It was thought that equations played a role in this. I have turned off both hierarchy and row equations. That appeared to do the trick, but that may have been a hasty conclusion. My current thinking is that I am experiencing these failures because I have specified non working hours and days. Turning these off SEEMS to resolve my issues, but based on my previous experience, I shall reserve judgment. This is very frustrating because the ability to define non working hours / days is essential to project planning.

 

I mean no disrespect and have great appreciation for what Pierre has accomplished. I want IQ to succeed and grow. It is in this spirit that I offer my criticism.

 
Jon

Comments

I, too, am growing weary as well as wary. I've been through this too many frustrating times not to recognize the signs. The question is what to do or where to go with my data. I 've been a data nomad before. Lately, I've been watching Zoot development & only out of the corner of my eye -- Ultra Recall  -- which I will probably never return to b/c of the bad behavior by the developers. What else is out there?  So, Jon, while I empathize with your statements & sentiments, while not giving a damn about gantt charts or outline styles, the real question is what's better? I like Pierre personally -- as I'm sure you do -- but share your sinking feeling about IQ as a refined application. I reiterate: what's else is out there that has a leg up on IQ? 

Jon

2013/04/19 12:45

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The only software that comes close would be Ultra Recall and Ecco Pro. Ecco always had appeal for me, but the pointer limits are too restrictive in today's environment. However I am seriously considering returning to Ecco and keeping the files relatively small. EccoExtension has introduced features which make this viable but not ideal. I use TheBrain for some very specific work and see this as a possible tool. Zoot is very interesting, but I lose my way when trying to get work done.
 
I continue to find UR very comprehensive and flexible. In fact, I can modify it to duplicate many of IQ's outlining features, complete with "columns." Again, not perfect, but usable.
 
I would rather not deviate in this discussion or bail out of IQ. What I really would like is to have IQ''s development resume and for Pierre to address its shortcomings quickly. A stable Version 1.0 with all components working correctly is long overdue.
 
Jan, use them or not, features that are present should work well. Gantts are extremely valuable for me. Not duplicating information already contained in IQ for use in other project management programs is very appealing. Currently I have no use for thee html pane, but I would be concerned about instabilities of that component because I may someday have need of it. But you do use other ares of IQ that seem not to work too well. In my above post, I cite undo, auto refresh and printing. These are all common, mainstream components (I almost called them features, but they should no longer be considered as such) that function imperfectly.              
 
Jon

jan_rifkinson

2013/04/19 13:50

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 I wasn't suggesting otherwise. It should all work well, even if not completed. Yes, we have different interests, uses but that's not your point nor mine 

Pierre:
 
I admit that I am seeing the logic behind how the gantt works in IQ. When the user creates non-working hours or non-working days, this prevents having multiple day tasks which span non-working days. Assigning non working hours similarly prevents the user for having a task with a duration of more than 24 hours.
 
In short, I take it all back. If I need such facility, I will leave the non working days and hours unassigned. This is clunky though - it would be nice to be able to have an option to have an override for the situations I describe above. Or (and this would be ideal) IQ would see that the user wants the task to span non-working periods. The bar would be broken up accordingly. That is blue for the working periods and a lighter shade for the non working periods.
 
Or leave it alone. Now that I understand how this works, I can deal with it.
 
Jon