Having read quickly through the 103 page document, I came to the conclusion (prematurely) that there were not many new itrems in Dorico 4 that were relevant to my needs.
Then I discovered that things that I used in Sibelius are given different and, at first sight, unrecognisable and incomprehensible, names. A good example is Instrument Filters, which function we had years ago in Sibelius under another name.
I shall be glad when programmers no longer feel the need to think up new names for the same thing, and when identical keyboard shortcuts are used in different programs for the same functions. We do have the general commands of CTL-S, CTL-F and CTL-P, etc, which are pretty much universal on Windows; but by now I should have hoped that some standardisation would be more common in specific disciplines.
The problem is not unique to music processors, DAW and photographic editing programs exhibit the same phenomenon. 
David
I’m not saying this is a Dorico philosophy, but I think the reason some devs/daws/software continue to do this is to (help) build brand loyalty. If they make it easy to switch, you might.
That said, some programs do allow you to specify other brand’s key commands to help in the learning.
Yes, and also they often want to distinguish themselves from the competitors, not copy their naming conventions. It’s all part of marketing (and perhaps sometimes also for legal reasons).
1 Like
You may be right about that. If so, it is a pity. Imagine if one company started to make (as then unknown) pencils, and other companies made similar devices and had to call them by other equally arcane names, there would be great confusion all around!
As it is, reserving the term Instrumental Filter for its present meaning is rather a restriction in functions that might be associated with the term.
David
“Focus on staves” isn’t the greatest name for a feature in the first place, but you’ve been living with it for the better part of 20 years, so it seems natural. Honestly, David, I don’t believe you’re a dog too old to learn new tricks, but you do sometimes come across like one 
7 Likes
LOL! I agree that neither of the names is perfect, and I can live with either, when I have figured out what they do. My hope is simply that there might be some agreed standardisation between software rivals at some point soon. As far as learning new tricks is concerned, Daniel, through necessity I managed to adapt pretty quickly to the Austrian convention of having the brakes on my Brompton L/R reversed from what was hard wired into me as a child in the UK! Crossing the road on foot is still a bit dodgy, however.
Sorry, I’m afraid the chances of us agreeing with our “rivals”, as you put it, on more or less anything is pretty remote.
2 Likes