last breath

[AnneMillington]

I'm happy enough with 27.3, but agree regarding the paucity of meat in the upgrades. It is not what I would expect from an application that is serious about progressing.

But like I say, it's okay. I do find that when I stumble upon some peculiarity with an action that "should" work, or has worked in the past, that restarting Finale and/or my computer more often than not fixes it. Some sort of memory management issue? I have an obscene level of RAM, but I am not sure Finale knows what to do with it.

Just an observation...

[N Grossingink]

One particular problem I've been having with F27.3 seems to be screen redrawing/update layout related.

Click on a measure and press the up or down arrow key to move it up or down a system. It usually works as expected but let's say 1 time out of 10 nothing happens. Press the arrow once or twice again and it suddenly works but adds the extra arrow strokes resulting in a pile of moved measures in the destination system.

The solution is if the measure does not move on the first arrow press, click outside of the music area and it will jump where you want it.

This is a common technique in Finale and maybe my observations will help a few others to not get caught off guard.

[miker]

I'll add that to my list of oddities.

My favorite (?) one is when my Mac keyboard shortcuts that I've set up for Finale don't work. I mouse up to the top menu bar and click. The shortcuts are back.

Go figure.

[N Grossingink]

IMy favorite (?) one is when my Mac keyboard shortcuts that I've set up for Finale don't work. I mouse up to the top menu bar and click. The shortcuts are back./quote]

Hmm…

I've had the same problem and have found just waiting and they come back. Thanks for the tip!

[motet]

Sometimes the shortcuts I've set for triggering Finalescript stop working and I have to restart. I figure Finalescript has silently crashed or hung.

[ebiggs1]

I've noticed that Simple entry just plain doesn't work sometimes.

That has never happened to me. So, that indicates to me it will work and it will work as advertised. There is nothing special about me or my computer.

And, my friend, it is very reasonable to submit that some of the problems people claim as bugs, or whatever, is not knowing how to use Finale.

Even though I am the proponent to everybody is different and have different needs writing music is basically the same for everybody. You still put music on the page. You may use different expressions or symbols, or format, etc. And your piece may be longer, very much longer than my concert band score but it is still basically music on the page.

BTW, all this is just pet peeves against Finale and has little to nothing to do with the "last breath" of MM. The fact they are nearly giving Finale away for free at $99 bucks and $79 for upgrades or students, should be the concern.

[ebiggs1]

I figure Finalescript has silently crashed or hung.

And more than likely an error in the script, not Finale.

[dtoub]

Sorry, but I really have to chime in here: this is a very condescending response. I've been a Finale user since the early 90's. I think I know what the hell I'm doing with it. Same with many of the folks in this thread. Blaming the user is an incredibly tone-deaf, useless and frankly, dumb way to approach this. How about learning the value of keeping quiet when you have nothing material to contribute? Seriously.

[ebiggs1]

How about learning the value of keeping quiet when you have nothing material to contribute?

Good advice please take it.

[dtoub]

How about learning the value of keeping quiet when you have nothing material to contribute?

Good advice please take it.

Uh, that was directed at you. But I understand your dilemma; self-awareness is hard.

[miker]

How about learning the value of keeping quiet when you have nothing material to contribute?

Good advice please take it.

Uh, that was directed at you. But I understand your dilemma; self-awareness is hard.

<moderator hat on> Gentlebeings, can we take a deep breath and get back on topic, please? <hat off>

[ebiggs1]

I believe I asked, politely, to do just that.

BTW, all this is just pet peeves against Finale and has little to nothing to do with the "last breath" of MM. The fact they are nearly giving Finale away for free at $99 bucks and $79 for upgrades or students, should be the concern.

[motet]

One can only guess, but it's certainly possible that dramatically dropping the price is a last-ditch effort due to declining sales, which is indeed cause for concern. If so, then it's natural to ask why that is, as indeed I thought the topic-starter did.

I have long thought that the reason MM doesn’t do the bug fixes or fix the quirky stuff, things that the more modern notation products do, is they can’t. Dunno why perhaps it is because the core engine of the Finale isn’t adaptable to it.

Or is it all just pilot error and pet peeves? In any case, I'm done here.

[AnneMillington]

For my part, I like Finale okay, because I am used to it, and Google searches help me over the rough patches. I just wish MM would be more motivated to support its users.

Many of us have worked with huge, complex applications that required complete rewriting to new architecture over months and years in order to continue to progress. It may be difficult for all involved, but that is survival.

[dtoub]

For my part, I like Finale okay, because I am used to it, and Google searches help me over the rough patches. I just wish MM would be more motivated to support its users.

I totally agree-I'm appalled by the pretty minimal support and lack of their presence on their official forum, let alone this one. That's ludicrous. One of the main reasons I think Dorico has such an active and enthusiastic following is because their commercial lead is ubiquitous on probably every forum out there. I'm not a Dorico user and I know him by name. How many people out there know who any of the developers are at MM? Of course, the frequent and significant Dorico updates also probably help.

This is, honestly, friggin pathetic.

[ebiggs1]

... let alone this one.

The will never be active on this forum. It doesn't belong to MM.

[miker]

... let alone this one.

The will never be active on this forum. It doesn't belong to MM.

They could always set up a user account. We wouldn’t throw them out.

And who is to say that they aren't lurking in the background?

[BuonTempi]

On top of the general lack of support, there is the question of what and when the next release will be.

There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern recently, but it's been 199 days since 27.3 was released. If they follow v26, then 3 releases is it.

If MM are going for a 2-year release strategy, Finale 28 should be due this summer/autumn; or if a 3-year strategy, it would be next year, making a 27.4 more likely.
Either way, MM would have to provide compelling features that would incite people to pay for another upgrade.

[ebiggs1]

And who is to say that they aren't lurking in the background?

Certainly possible for sure but I would put it in the same file where the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and Bigfoot are. Just, MHO.

[RimasG]

What is most disappointing is that MM is turning its improvements towards "space", leaving aside old problems that annoy practically all users. With every update I keep hoping: well, now it will be. And each time, to no avail.

[ebiggs1]

There doesn't seem to be much of a pattern recently,.....

Can you really call any of that a pattern? Looks pretty random to me.

[ebiggs1]

... leaving aside old problems that annoy practically all users.

I tend to disagree. Finale, as is, runs pretty darn well for me and what I do. I think I am pretty typical in the way most folks use it. I am sure that some users see issues that seem to never go aways are a sore spot. I also believe those issues can not be solved and that is why they aren't. Thank heaven for plugins!

[BuonTempi]

I tend to disagree. Finale, as is, runs pretty darn well for me and what I do. I think I am pretty typical in the way most folks use it.

"It can't be like that for others because it's not like that for me" is a logical fallacy, at best. People have been complaining for decades about bugs in core Finale tasks that remain unfixed. If you disagree with all those people, then your usage cannot be typical.

I also believe those issues can not be solved and that is why they aren't.

You can't possibly know that unless you've seen the code.

Thank heaven for plugins!

The Plug-in Development Kit was an unholy, barely functioning mess, and MM withdrew it c. 2010(?) from everyone except Tobias, Robert Patterson, and Jari. It was Jari who single-handedly created an intermediary layer that made it workable. Imagine how terrible Finale would be now if there were no new plug-ins. That very nearly happened.

Arguably, most of the useful and productive development in the last decade has come from Jari Williamsson.

And so MM can just point to the plug-ins, and say "there's the feature, we don't need to implement it".

[motet]

Robert Patterson has now taken over the development of the LUA plug-in, bless him!

"It works great for me, so what is everybody complaining about?" is indeed fallacious.

Just the other day I saw someone on Facebook who had gotten the terrible error "Can't save - FILENAME.MUSX does not exist" - can't save their file, can't do "Save As." This happens when you leave Finale open for a long time, due to mismanagement of temporary files.

Apparently they won't fix this, even though (I believe, as a career software developer) it's straight-forward, won't even fix the error message (the file .musx file in fact does exist), which is misleading at best. You can salvage your work by exporting as MusicXML (lossy) or by creating a new file and pasting the old file into it, but most users aren't going to know to do that, so spend time trying to figure out file permissions etc. and end up pissed off and losing their work.

[miker]

Robert Patterson has now taken over the development of the LUA plug-in, bless him!

Is LUA going to supersede any further development of Finalescript, JW and Patterson plugins, etc.? Is there (or will there be) a LUA for Dummies, somewhere?

In the past, the speculation has been that “Oh, Finale will release an update or new version in time for the next school year.” That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore, if it ever was true.