I’ve reported 8 bugs over the last 6 months. Almost none of them get any confirmation or response from any admin/QA even though they contain complete reproduction schemes according to software dev standard.
I also found a 9 years old post with a bug report for Cubase. To my enjoyment, even after passing through several version of Cubase, leaving for Logic, returning to Nuendo, this bug is still present.
So the question is: is there any use to keep posting detailed bug reports? Are they backlogged somewhere? Or should I use my time for other things? There are TONS of bugs left that I haven’t been able to reliably reproduce yet that I encounter every day.
I don’t understand why Steinberg doesn’t have an official bug reporting system with instructions of how to write reports properly.
Thats a dangerous path to go down. Years ago I beta tested for a lot of companies. I would often find bugs that nobody else found. And the vitriol I received from the “weekend warrior” beta testers was horrific. I got called all kinds of insulting names because oftentimes I was the only one reporting these bugs due to my intense working sessions under great pressure from high profile clients sitting next to me. On one Logic session with legendary Burt Bacharach, the program crashed every time I tried to record midi and audio at the same time. People called me names for making. big deal about the “bug” that I was the only user reporting. Then Emagic finally confirmed it and fixed it. Nuendo had a bug where the midi clocked delays wouldn’t follow tempo changes, especially long ritards. I got yelled at over that. Lots more examples I could cite, which is why it was better for me not to be beta testing and getting accosted. But if I were a software company I would embrace the one user who happened to find a bug.
I work myself in software development, and I’m aware of the difference of “user error” and bug. So far, I’ve made that misstake once, and removed it.
If something is reproducable according to a standard QA scheme, even if it’s system specific, it is to be treated as a bug related to that device.
“Other have not confirmed is” is an invalid argument. There can be tons of reasons for that: people just working around it without noticing, using the software in a different way, on a different system, different contexts, etc. I tend to push all software I use to the limits of what’s possible technically, utilizing all different tools to speed up workflow, including external macro tools to fix “design flaws” in the software. I doubt the majority of users spend such an amount of time doing that.
A bug report system for the public should definitely be put in place, where the user is forced to submit a reproducable scheme. That will eliminate most users errors, since being forced to do this often can result finding the cause of the problem.
The Steinberg procedure is very simple. It has to be reproducible. So you have to provide a specific chain of actions (do this, do that, result=) As soon as this has been confirmed by others, it is accepted as a bug. And will be treated as a bug. The only culpit is that some bugs appear only under specific conditions. So the repro needs to be as complete/fullproof as can be.
Ugh. Half the time I can select multiple tracks in Cubase or Nuendo and using the color selector try to change the colors. Half the time it works but half the time it doesn’t. I’ve come up with workarounds and given up trying to report it because it’s not ‘reliably’ reproducible, just “most of the time”. That’s a bug that’s been around for years. All bugs are not entirely reproducible but they are definitely bugs that need to be fixed.
If it’s anything like at Apple, it doesn’t matter if the bug is reproducible or not. There needs to be a minimum threshold of users reporting & complaining about the bug before [insert name of software company here] will take notice. As the old adage goes; the squeaky wheel gets the grease.