Hello Joel,
There's no funding in making "polished products," as far as I can tell... you
get your software/design process/whatever to the point where you can publish a
paper or two -- knowing that it has plenty of quirks/bugs/etc., but all ones
that you know of so that you can work around -- and then it's on to the next
project. :-(
Sadly, that's their way of thinking and IMHO it's wrong. If they would
collaborate and form competence centers they would gain so much more
status and fame with industry. This in turn would lead to more lucrative
research contracts and that would bring urgently needed money to
universities. But the way it is now, during most industrial projects we
don't even consider involving a university. That could be different. But
only after we see them follow through with their own things.
A great example of doing it right is the Werkzeugmaschinenlabor (WZL) at
RWTH Aachen University (my alma mater). They design and maintain a well
rounded set of CAD tools. Consequently, in my days they were quite flush
with research funds from companies who needed help in mechanical
engineering. I fondly remember the keggers they regularly threw on their
front lawn. Money didn't seem to be an issue there.
I've tried to talk to some about it but it is like kicking an oak tree
so I stopped.
Well... ok, but if commercial entities were had such a strong sense of
long-term commitment, don't you think that software would generally be
somewhat less buggy than it is today? Most companies seem to spend more
effort introducing "glamorous new features" than they do fixing their bugs...
It exists. Look at Cadsoft Eagle. I have yet to have it do a hard crash
and I haven't discovered any tough bug. The only weirdness is that you
sometimes have to unselect and select the printer. Kind of like the
double-clutching on large trucks. Oh well, if that's all I can live with it.
After a while it becomes obvious which companies can achieve quality and
which ones cannot. Just like with cars where there are certain brands or
models I would never buy. This can vary even within companies. For
example, while IMHO much SW from MS is very sub-par there is other SW
such as MS-Works which is and always has been of a solid quality. So I
use that for my book-keeping.
