[vtkusers] complaint to Kitware!

[Will Schroeder]

Hi Leila-

At 11:24 AM 3/3/2003 -0500, Leila Baghdadi wrote:
>I just had a couple of things to say about the new books which I have
>purchased less than a week ago. This is particularly about the user's guide
>which seems to have gotten a new colorful cover and almost no change on
>the content. I understand that there is material about widgets but nothing on
>python!!

There is new material for 3D widgets, higher-order finite elements, XML 
file formats, texture mapping and a ton of little tweaks to bring the text 
up to date with the software which as you know changes daily (not to 
mention changes to CMake). We do our best to keep up with changes but it's 
definitely a challenge!!! We do not support the four different languages 
because the books would not support themselves financially. The book 
revenues allow us to keep the documentation up to date so we have to at 
least break even to keep selling the VTK books. (This is unlike the ITK 
books and course material which is being produced under contract from the 
National Library of Medicine. They are paying for the content (a lot of 
money!) so there is no requirements at this time for the books to be 
profitable. The VTK books are self-sustaining. When the NLM contract 
eventually run dry, then these books will suffer the same self-sustaining 
requirement.)

>1) why did I not get the new version of the CDs eventhough I purchased
>both of the books?

During the last couple of weeks the content of the VTK 4.2 CD has changed 
three times. This is because of fixes to VTK reflecting the release 
process, and occasionally due to problems with the CD. Eventually there 
will be a VTK 4.2.2, 4.2.3, etc. as patches come rolling in. Which one you 
get is dependent on the day you buy the book. We send the current release 
of the software with each book, but it may be updated on any given day. In 
your case on the VTK4.2.0 CD, the vtk-src-unix/Examples/Build/vtkLocal 
directory was missing, while vtk-src-windows/Examples/Build/vtkLocal was 
present (which has been corrected on the VTK 4.2.1 CD). If you feel that 
you have a defective CD let me know and I'll find a way to fix the situation.

Finally, I would ask that you consider keeping commercial transactions to a 
minimum on the VTK users list. This list provides a service to the 
community and we try to keep the commercial overhead to a minimum. If you 
have products questions, concerns, complaints, or compliments I suggest 
that you use kitware at kitware.com.

Thanks for the feedback,
Will



William J. Schroeder, Ph.D.
Kitware, Inc.
469 Clifton Corporate Parkway
Clifton Park, NY 12065
will.schroeder at kitware.com
1-518-371-3971 x102 (phone)
1-518-371-3971 (fax)