Vad, I think he wants to hear from you, IF you can provide helpful input, not just complaining.

Brad,

I would love to see a list of goals for 4.0 and what would be on SD's plate vs whats on ours. 
It would help everyone focus on the positive side of things, like where you see DX going, or not going. 

Also, What we should be testing, at each release, so we are not bringing up things that are not yet implemented. 

Are we to start on the current beta or wait? 

If you are looking for ideas on what "we" the community are after there are multiple DX threads out there where we have all discussed what we need/want/wish for.  I think that was how this all got started when Zu asked all of us to give him ideas on DX 4.0  here: https://forums.wincustomize.com/345094

I personally know 0 about building a plug-in or dll, as the only real programming i have ever done is in vbscript/asp/vb, so im useless in that line.  But im willing to test things that people have ready for testing, but i guess i need to know what to test first.

I think i know Vad fairly well, and i think he is just very very frustrated with multiple years of trying to get some of the basic items of DX fixed, and sometimes, since English is not his primary language, it does not come out the way he is meaning things. And like c242 said we wouldnt be so intense if we didnt care.  Let me state that i think DX is without a doubt the most under-used, under-appriciated, and under-hyped product stardock has.   I know that personally i had very large hopes for DX and its potential.  I think there is a small but very loyal DX community here, and not to be disrespectfull in anyway, but Vad has done things with DX that to me are just beyond amazing, he brings a knoledge of this product that i dont think anyone has (at SD or anywhere) and his input is VERY much needed to make DX 4 something that SD and all of us can be proud of.

I also agree with the others here that most of our "whining" was becuase no one was responding.  Now that we know whats going on its a different story.  None of us want to see DX die, we want to see it become even better, we want to work WITH SD on this. 

I would also say that respect goes both ways, respect for our concerns and complaints, and for the Hundreds if not thousands of hours that some of us have put into DX over the years.  Again, we all want DX to succede, or else we would have moved on to something else. We do appriciate the time and effort it will take (and has taken) and it means a lot to me personally that you care enough to keep us posted and to be honest with us.

And lastly (and i pormise im done talking).

Merry Christmas to everyone at WC and SD.

Nice job, David! I hope Brad listens to you and Vad and Littleboy and keeps DX around. I don't know what I'd do without DX!

Let me be candid then too.

What the fuck! I gave you legit issues in post #3 of this forum and explained what I did to see the issues, and watched it (and everyone elses comments) be ignored.
Several of us have told you that we felt SD just didn't give a shit because of lack of response. All has been (I thought) so much better since you stepped in and showed us you actually cared.

I asked legit questions concerning why the plugins supplied dont work. You clarified why. My issues were legit, to me, and some others. If it took calling the beta garbage to get someone's attention then so be it. If SD had been paying attention to us in the first place then that wouldn't have happened.

Frankly, that knife in the face you just threw really hurt and was uncalled for.

I'll not provide any more feedback on the betas.

The date my "take over" on DesktopX 4 can be marked on the first day I posted in this thread.

And since I began posting, all I've seen are complaints.

Even after we fixed the beta recently (the initial beta was a cluster due to the installer) people still want to focus on that.  What I'm trying to get across is that there's no leverage here. If you guys want to flog us for the craptitude of the initial DesktopX 4 beta, then you can do it without me because no one is more irritated about that than I am.

I'll be highlighting our goals shortly but DesktopX 4.0's goal is not to be some sort of major rewrite but rather something that makes it ready for the next-gen version of Windows.

If we want to do something really impressive,we'd need to start over where we can ditch backwards compatibility, do it with WPF.  But that'll be expensive and time consuming.

Ok. I'll keep an eye on it.

Now, question is: to ensure bugs are recorded, should I submit new bug reports for DX4 for things that has been broken since DX3.x? Start over clean with the reports after testing against DX4? And if so, when would it be meaning ful to do so? (Just so that I don't jump the gun here.)

Sounds good to me. New features isn't all to interesting before the existing issues is fixed. And I belive that when they are addressed it'll be easier to work with DX and hopefully more new stuff will be produced

I've begun to look back at my old project and pondering on picking up a few of them if the bugs that stopped them get addressed. A few ideas for some new projects is also simmering...

For the benefit of the skinners:

In Windows 7 if you try to create an Object Type of Folder Shortcut, My Computer is not listed. (see reply #3 for more details).

I've found a way around this.

Create an Object Type of File Shortcut. In the path put the following in:

C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Computer.lnk

This will do it.

Addition:

Trying to create a Control Panel Folder Shortcut works, but always puts the view in small icon view. To have it in category view all the time create a File shortcut to:

C:\Users\Default\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Accessories\System Tools\Control Panel.lnk

Or, you could just use this script.

'Called when the script is executed
Sub Object_OnLButtonUp(x,y,dragged)
If Not dragged Then
On Error Resume Next
Set Sh = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Sh.Run (Chr(34)& Chr(34))
Set Sh = Nothing
End If
End Sub

This is present in Vista as well, isn't it? I thought it was a 3.5 bug.

I have always had to use the above script, which I got from the MyComputer object that comes with DX, if memory serves.

That object does not use any scripts. But oddly enough when i delete it I am asked to delete related objects too. There are no related objects to that. It is a simple Folder Shortcut that you select from the drop down. Designed on Windows XP no doubt. My Computer is not valid on Vista and 7 as it is simply titled "Computer" instead of "My Computer".

In any regard, these types of functions never required scripts before. If DesktopX is going to have to rely totally on scripting for simple objects then its current customer base will shrink quite a bit. As a programming app it is a wonderfully unique tool however and opens up avenues for a different customer base.

And... Thanks for the script example. Very handy!

I belive it worked pre-Vista.

You're right. Hmmm....I can't remember where I got that script, I thought it was that object. Thanks for the correction! 

If you mean the Computer object, it works for me on Vista and 7.