JW plugins ?

[Michel R E]

With the very long delays I'm presuming that the JW plugins are now officially dead?
Jari hasn't updated anything except a small subset in "beta" version, and doesn't give any news, whether it be on any forums or in his mailing list.

if anyone knows him, would they mind nudging him to at least tell us if there is hope for the future?

[motet]

Same question about Tobias Giesen, I guess, though it seems like he's been phoning it in for years. I hope J.W. hasn't lost interest or is pissed off at MM.

[Michel R E]

as far as I know, the TGTools plugins have recently been released for Finale 25.
for the time being I'm finding the price a tad steep for the use I'd make of them, but eventually I'll have to set some pennies aside to purchase the full set.

however, news from Jari would be more than appreciated.

[motet]

TGTools seem to get eventually updated enough to work with each new version, it's true, but there haven't been any new features for many years, and bugs don't get fixed.

[BuonTempi]

Jari has not responded to my messages, but he is still accepting donations on his site. To those that have paid him money since Finale 25 came out, he really does owe an explanation.

Also, MM should open up the PDK to any developer that wants it. I dare say there are other developers who would be able to put something useful together. Alternatively, Jari should open source his plug-ins so that other can take over, if he is unable to continue.

[Michel R E]

the lack of response from him is the only thing that has stopped me from donating.
money is already very tight, as a struggling musician, I'm not going to give it away to someone who doesn't seem interested in why exactly we would be making those donations.

[David Ward]

Given how very helpful Jari has been in the past, for which I remain deeply grateful and appreciative, I feel sure that there is a good reason why he is being slow about producing the new versions and why he is not responding to messages.

eg Is he in poor health?
Is somebody close to him having serious health or other major problems, attending to which takes up much of his time and energy?

Or on another tack entirely, is he in the middle of some major unrelated project with a deadline, and simply has no free time for the plug-ins?

I might think of half a dozen other possibilities, but…

[Michel R E]

Of course, David, those are all possibilities.
But it would seem that when one considers the number of people who rely on his plugins for their day-to-day work, he would be considerate enough to at least give a modicum of news.

"I am going through *excuse* at this time, please forgive the delay, I will give you news as soon as I can" would be, at a minimum, acceptable.
Instead we get no news at all, a sudden dump of "beta" plugins for Finale 25, and no answers to any questions regardless of the medium (mailing list, forums, etc...)

[NickG]

This is no joke, this is serious stuff. Many users depend on these plug-ins for thier work. I think MM should take full responsibly for this. All the plug-ins they offer to users should be 100% available when Finale is updated. DON'T UPDATE FINALE IF THE PLUG-INS ARE NOT READY. If they can't guarantee this, then they should not offer them to be used in Finale.

[zuill]

Until the plugins came along, I did all of what they do, but manually. The plugins only automate things Finale can do natively.

I believe Jari is a violinist with the Gothenburg Opera. It looks like they are having a busy season. It just might be he is short of spare time. He's been so generous over the years that I would give him the benefit of a doubt. The last set of beta plugins came out October 21 for Windows. I know there is no Mac set. For plugins I need that are only for earlier versions, I go back to 2014.5. TGTools Menu shortcuts also don't work properly in v25, so Jari is not the only one having to redesign things for the 64bit version. Everyone, including MM is scrambling to get things right.

Zuill

[BuonTempi]

This is no joke, this is serious stuff. Many users depend on these plug-ins for thier work. I think MM should take full responsibly for this. All the plug-ins they offer to users should be 100% available when Finale is updated. DON'T UPDATE FINALE IF THE PLUG-INS ARE NOT READY. If they can't guarantee this, then they should not offer them to be used in Finale.

I'm afraid I can't agree: these plug-ins are produced by THIRD-PARTY developers, external to MM. I would not want MM to delay a Finale release because someone outside their control hasn't updated their code.

[Skjalg]

As long as Jari is giving away his plug-ins for free, we are not in a position to lay any pressure on him. But I am convinced that updates will come sooner or later, and the JW Lua project has developed so far that I can't imagine that it will come to an end at this point. I keep my fingers crossed, keep donating and hope for a long period of rainstorms in Sweden so that indoors activities (i.e. programming) can be an alternative for our man in Gothenburg.

[ebiggs1]

Perhaps he is working with MM to incorporate the plug-in into Finale permanently. After all they simply do things Finale should do from the get go.

[N Grossingink]

As long as Jari is giving away his plug-ins for free, we are not in a position to lay any pressure on him.

I agree!!

I have no doubt that Jari is aware of the desire of many for the updated plugins. However, things "are as they are". A little patience, folks.

N.

[Michel R E]

As long as Jari has a "donate" button on his website, and considering the length of time his plugins have been an integral part of Finale, we at least deserve a MINIMUM of respect, which means at least relatively regular amount of news on progress or not.

If he had been posting at least a short comment every month or even two, it would have made a HUGE difference. Just a quick "too busy to work on plugins right now, news when I can, thank-you all for your patience" would be enough.

At this time he hasn't responded to any emails either. Which DOES lead some to suspect that his plugins might be dead in the water. However, if that is the case then people should at least be told not to wait for updates.

now, whether Jari wants to relegate the continuation of of the JW plugins to someone else is entirely up to him. It would be disappointing if they just died since they are such a powerful set of tools. But that decision would be his.

[miker]

Jari has my thanks, and deepest respect, for all he has done to help us streamline our work in Finale.

On the other hand, I have to agree with Michel. As a past (and pre-) donor, I would appreciate some acknowledgement and information.

[motet]

I worry.

[Charles Lawrence]

I too would like to have some news, but speculation is pointless. I'm sure there is a good reason why there has been none recently. The fact that there have been some beta plug-ins released for Win F25 is enough to convince me that more will be coming. Patience folks, patience.