I have to say, after 14 years of developing with Lotus Notes I am occasionally flabbergasted at the number of old bugs that remain in the development environment. What’s your ‘favorite’ pet peeves with the world’s least mature, yet elderly developer environment?
I’ll kick it off with a few.
Sometimes when you test a form then try to switch back to the designer, you can’t ALT-Tab back. Instead, focus locks on to the Properties box and there is no way to get back to either the designer or the client without closing the properties box completely. (Designer doesn’t even appear in the task bar.)
Why do I seem to be flooded with prompts everytime I push the STOP or CLOSE DEBUGGER button when debugging LotusScript. IF I PUSH STOP I WANT TO STOP. What is SO hard to work out about that?
HideWhens. Basically, they still often fail to work without incurring all manner of problems after all these years. Don’t even get me started. The don’t work on Richtext in tables unless the RTItem is preceded by a space. Another example, right now I have a form with a single value that computes to either @True or @False. The hidewhen formula has the value of the Field as it’s Hidewhen. For example, the field called IsNotDebugMode, has a value of “[Debug]” = @UserRoles. All hidden fields have a hidewhen formula of IsNotDebugMode. This includes the line with the field itself. All lines work except that first line. I know a hidewhen can work if based on a field on that line but in this case it doesn’t. I’ve had hidewhen where even @True didn’t trigger it to hide correctly! Useless, inconsistent crap that eats up hours of time try to work out.
The Principal field. (Pause and breathe deeply.) The most inconsistent and pitfall ridden journey anyone has ever taken to send an email with a recipient-friendly Sender Name - a task that can be almost nightmarishly difficult at times. I don’t want a long list of rules to follow. What I want is to set the damn Principal field to whatever I damnwell please and for it to WORK ACCORDINGLY, regardless of Run As Web User, signer of the agent, SMTP or Native notes. If I set it, I want to use it. The rest should be left to the black box. JUST DO IT ALREADY. Why does this have to be so friggin’ hard on the web.
HORRIFIC - NAY, ALMOST TORTUROUS - code editors. Unable to reliably perform stacked undos in either Lotus Script (it can actually completely screw your code up by putting ‘undone’ code back to the wrong place!!) or Formula Language. A LotusScript Editor that does not keep Sub and Function names in alphabetical order. A Search and Replace dialog that doesn’t do either reliably. And what’s with making the Find and Replace window modal? What idiot decided that was a good ideal? You have to close the damn Find dialog every time you want to edit or scroll the text a bit to see what the lines folling your find contain. There used to be a product called Formula Editor on the market that you could plug into Notes. It would format your code the way the LotusScript editor does. Lotus could have bought it and incorporated it. But nope. They didn’t. And it vanished in the mist.
Document Items in the debugger are not in alphabetical order. They are in the order that they were written to the document (I think)? Just how friggin’ useful is that to a human being that is trying to debug a routine? Lazy programming. “It’s too hard…”
The Code Helper in Formula Language frequently vanishes if you mistype something and have to backspace. Worthless. In fact, why not just slap in the content of the template INCLUDING parameters (or make having it do that a Programmer a settable pane property). THAT would be useful.
Even after more than a decade of designer revisions it still has less functionality, reliability and programmer-task-friendliness than Micro Focus COBOL’s Workbench had in 1995.
All valid points that often force developers to spend countless additional hours. Here’s a couple more:
Synopsis does not output JavaScript. In a world where more and more development is being done in that language, I would think it’s essential to be able to do a synopsis and say, search for a field name to see what code might be making changes to it, regardless if that code is in Formula, LotusScript or JavaScript. I have been burned by this once before and now I use DXL output when searching through code that may have JavaScript.
Another one is to do with template names. I have had this experience more than once. I change the name of the template on a template (by adding a date, for example), then I change the name of the “inherits from” on the database and refresh. Template not found!!! Huh??? I check and the template no longer has the new template name. I change it again, press the checkmark. Everytthing’s OK. I click off the icon in the workspace, go back and check the template name again, and again it’s gone. I close all clients, re-open them, repeat the process with the same results. I also try to compact my workspace, delete the desktop file, etc. all with the same results. I finally succumb to having to ask the administrator to set the template name on the template and he succeeds from the admin client on the very first try.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
Cesar
Another one is to do with template names. I have had this experience more than once. I change the name of the template on a template (by adding a date, for example), then I change the name of the “inherits from” on the database and refresh. Template not found!!! Huh??? I check and the template no longer has the new template name. I change it again, press the checkmark. Everytthing’s OK. I click off the icon in the workspace, go back and check the template name again, and again it’s gone. I close all clients, re-open them, repeat the process with the same results. I also try to compact my workspace, delete the desktop file, etc. all with the same results. I finally succumb to having to ask the administrator to set the template name on the template and he succeeds from the admin client on the very first try.
Do you have the rights to create template on your server?
There is a technote about this one. I 'll try to find it back and post it here.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
The DXL Transformer function in Designer is meant to supercede and open up the synopsis function. It’s true that you would need to write an XSL, but with that you can have much finer control over the design report than you can with Synopsis.
First off, I was trying to be playful and a bit flippant. Perhaps I should have thrown a couple of emoticons in. Clearly I failed miserably
Anyway, I realize the absolute genius of Notes and have been working in it for 14 years. It was not my intention to offend with the word rubbish. I was just trying to drum up a bit of controversy to get some replies :).
Hope that clarifies!
I truly do believe the development environment is very, VERY poor because as I say I have worked with superior IDEs as much as 15 years ago. However, it does not in any way negate that the final product and the Notes/Domino platform as a whole is remarkable and productive.
I get what True North is saying, and he’s right, and it needed to be said – again. He’s not the first to say these things, only the first to have a long enough lunch hour to do it, LOL.
He’s NOT saying that Notes is rubbish. He’s saying all these little things have been slowing everyone down, and getting up everyone’s nose, for over a decade and a half now, and enough is enough. Lotus has long since lost (their own fault, I think, but that’s another matter) the public marketing battle to Microsoft. So, more than ever, they rely on us to say, hey, Notes is worth a look. Which we do. So, throw us a bone, and get these things out of our collective noses, LOL.
How about trying to recompile all scripts with some errors? How to find what script actually is wrong?
Why is there no Lotusscript function to determine whether or not you are in debug-mode?
How to edit the different database scripts in a multilingual template? Please note that in these templates there can be a database script for each language.
Have you ever worked with DXL? Were you ever able to find the location of the error as reported by the errorlog?
An eyeopener might be to export the standard mail-template and try to import it back. You will get ERRORS from the DXLImporter. And, a little bit less harmfull, you also get a bunch of warnings.
Why is there no way, except by adding special code, to trace an agent (or lotusscript) that is invoked from the Web?
Why is the function “Send me a daily e-mail listing new responses that are posted to this thread” not working on this fourm?
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
You’re right about debugging DXL, but what I do is export the DXL I’m trying to import it to a file, then examine this with an XML validator (I use “XML Copy Editor” - opensource) and I make sure the domino dtd is in subdirectory “xmlschemas” in the export directory. Then I can check if it’s well formed and valid; the editor gives me the right spot where things are messed up in combinination with the same kind of error from the error log.
And I noticed too that the email notification doesn’t function - it’s a bummer if you want to follow up what you posted here…
I’ve been working with this stuff for almost as long and here are a couple more of my personal favourites that haven’t been covered already:
Not being able to debug a dialog is a major deficiency because of the extra time and effort that is necessary when you need to find out exactly what is going on.
How about a lotusscript class browser - ever had that sinking feeling when you pick up someone’s (usually very clever and complicated) class definition to debug?
I think ‘Rubbish’ is a bit of a harsh description though. Flawed certainly, but it is easy to take for granted or forget all of the good points.
As there is a free LotusScript class browser available from a third party, I’m not sure if or when Lotus will come up with their own. For sure it would be better to have one directly integrated into the IDE.
Developers not taking the time to create LSDoc compatible documents is another reason for hard to understand code.
Oh, and btw.: There is no Notes Designer. It’s called Domino Designer now, which improved the product quite a bit.
There’s stuff I don’t like about it too. Fortunately, IBM are letting us spend some of their dollars (probably a lot of them, before we’re done) to fix stuff up in some major ways. Are they letting us fix everything we want? Perhaps not. Will it take a while? For sure. Am I going to carry on with my Donald Rumsfeld imitation? No way.
While some of your points are valid, I lose respect for someone who will stand up and call other people’s work rubbish but refuse to give their own name. Anonymous flamebaiting just doesn’t belong in a civilized forum.
Alt-tab does not shift to Designer because it isn’t a separate process. There are pros and cons to that, but it is a fairly simple explanation.
Beyond that, you have not done your homework with hide-when formulas and rich text. A stick shift may be harder to use than an automatic transmission, but there is a reason race car drivers prefer the stick shift. Rich text in Notes is very powerful, but it requires some education, and that would be self education.
The Principal field is not buggy, just used within a system that has a strong focus on security and tries to eliminate misuse. Certainly there are mail systems where it is easy to send out mail as anybody, but they are often misused.
The code editors are certainly annoying as can be.
Document items should be in alphabetical order.
While I occasionally get irritated when the auto-complete disappears, I get more irritated in code editors that won’t make it go away and keep trying to shove the whole template on you.
Does my feeling differently about these issues make your concerns invalid? Of course not. But the fact that reasonable people can differ does suggest that the system is not simply “rubbish”, although parts are highly imperfect. I still stand by the fact that if you want to cast aspersions, identify yourself and consider swallowing your frustration and posting with a little less venom. Eitherwise, it is too easy to be dismissed as a troll, and you have enough valid points that I would prefer you were not just ignored.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
I agree with Ben. Criticism is important, but it should be always be presented in a professional manner. As befits IT professionals who have exercised excellent judgment in choosing (in my case, anyway) to work in Notes/Domino.
When looking at the way things are designed, one should always take the context in which those things were designed - more often than not one finds that the design was appropriate in that context. Having used a variety of IDEs, I actually think Designer is pretty good (yes, with shortcomings). And if you think that Designer is archaic, you need to try something like the AS/400 PDA as an IDE LOL!
In addition, in an IT career of over 30 years, there are probably, no definitely, lots of examples of poor code that I’ve written scattered all over the place in all sorts of language. Let those who are without sin . . . etc.
As far as Designer goes, an Eclipse-based version is imminent; something I am eagerly anticipating. I’m happy to work with Designer as is, warts and all; I’m sure that many if not all of the shortcomings in Designer (and I agree that there are several) will be addressed by the development team.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
yes, the Designer in Eclipse is undergoing (very!) active development, and will address many of the issues, some in the first release, others in the next. Eclipse brings much needed improvements to Designer, and it’s really a joy to be able to revolutionize it - and we hope you will enjoy working with it as soon as it is available!
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
With all due respect I have done my homework.
Yes, Tab-ALT does work under normal conditions when switching between Designer and Notes Client. It just sometimes gets ‘caught’ on the properties box. Check it out for yourself. Designer and Client are listed MOST of the time as separate processes on the task bar. However, once in a while Designer will just disappear until the properties box is closed.
I am well versed in Rich Text fields. Not sure what you are trying to tell me. What I can tell you is that if you don’t have a space in front of a richtext field that is in a table, the HideWhen won’t work. If you do, then it will.
The Principal field absolutely SHOULD allow me to override the sender, particularly if it is going out over SMTP. The fact is that unless you use certificates, the recipient cannot guarantee the origin based on the “From” field alone. In fact, they likely wouldn’t know it was from Domino. Domino should not be deciding for me, what is right or wrong to do in this case. In the case of sending from Notes to Notes, I take your point and accept it because the recipient is guaranteed by virture of the signer’s ID. However, SMTP needs far more flexibilitiy.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
You are correct. It does happen, and you didn’t even mention that it is not possible to place the properties dialog where you want in a multi-monitor configuration.
You cannot hide RT fields at all, neither within nor outside of tables, neither with or without a space. It will always only work, until someone adds his/her own hide-when-formulas inside the RT field. Consequentially, you shouldn’t even consider this design technique. Now, call that a bug or an inconvenience or whatever, but that’s the price you pay for the power RT fields give to the user. I believe, that this is what Ben has been referring to.
It seems you do know what to do to make the Principal field work (as laid out e.g. in the agent FAQ), but refuse to walk that rocky road. Point taken, but personally, I find it absolutely acceptable, that this issue is covered by Notes standard security. Plus, it is hardly a Domino Designer issue.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
Regarding #2, it is possible you know more about rich text than I do, but I’d doubt it. If you look at my article Rich Text 101 - Hide-when formulas, you’ll see the “fix” you are describing in the section “A Partial Fix to Hide-When formulas in Rich Text Fields”, but I also describe why it is only a partial fix. I can make a rich text field that does not have a space in front of it that hides inside a table cell. I can also make a rich text field with a space in front of it inside (or out) of a table cell that does not hide. My comment about doing your homework is just that is is clearly described in this forum and on my blog (which is referenced in this forum) why this fix sort of works, why it doesn’t always work, and why it is not limited to rich text fields in table cells.
As an aside to others, it is perfectly possible to hide rich text, you just either have to keep the hide-when formula in the rich text itself or use a tool to set the hide-when inside the rich text. There is nothing a rich text that is less hideable, it is just more complex.
Subject: RE: The Notes Designer And Why It’s Rubbish.
Oh well, this is what happens if you speak out for someone who can perfectly do on its own …
Just for clarification: Ben, I’m well aware of your Rich Text 101 and I didn’t mean to say that there is no hide-when in RT. However, I didn’t use appropriate terminology.
What I really meant to say is, that you can not hide RT fields (reliably) using the same technique as used for ordinary fields in Designer, by simply applying a hide-when-formula to a paragraph.
- it’s a bummer if you want to follow up what you posted here…