Real Time View (and other) delays

A number of people have expressed considerable disappointment at our lack of getting real-time view mode released.

Sentiments such as "there is no excuse" have surfaced, and I think in many ways that is a fairly reasonable position to have: all that needs to happen is for this particular feature to have reached the top of the Saleae list. And surely there has been enough time for it to have reached the top by now!

We - meaning Mark and I - have made a series of decisions after the Gen 2 product started shipping late 2014/early 2015. Things had been really rough financially, it would be a year+ before things turned around, according to the projections. And so we focused our resources on some things that were not real time view. After the launch the software was unacceptably unstable for many users and so we focused that first. This ended up consuming a ton of time. Two steps further down on the software development list after this was real time view, but then we decided that what the company really needed was a professional overhaul and a revamped direction and purpose and so we started to focus our efforts there. And that too has taken considerably longer that I would have liked.

Could people better than us pulled this off much faster, made better decisions, launched real time view, and bunch of other awesome stuff? Yes, better people could have. Unfortunately for the logic analyzer community all available better talent was deployed on, well, everything you can imagine except logic analyzers (e.g. writing apps, designing the iPhone 7, designing the Tesla Model 3, etc, etc). This is not to say I personally really suck, or that we can't and won't get a lot better. I've spent the better part of this year specifically investigating exactly how one does run a company that is massively successful and ships things like real time view as a matter of course.

This is also not to say that I am not personally extremely disappointed and upset that we have not had more software progress than we have - in particular because that's one of the crappy things about the test and measurement industry we set out to correct. For example, when's the last time your bench scope downloaded awesome new features?

With that said:

I personally am super excited about the future of the software and the future of Saleae. Mark and I are both fully committed to making the software absolutely amazing.

What I need to ask for is patience. We will do the absolute best we can.

As engineers, we tend to be wildly optimistic about what can be accomplished in short order. Perhaps you can relate. In the past, we provided forward looking expectations about when software would be done, when things would ship, etc, etc. At the time we thought they were reasonable estimates. Well, that was a bad idea. It caused untold upset to customers. So we have to change this. Here's the new policy:

  • We can't provide any guidance on when (or if) any particular feature or product will be worked on or shipped.
  • We can only say that we will do the best we can, make the best decisions we can at each point, and work towards making the best product we know how to make.
  • When purchasing a product, please be sure to make your decision based on features that are already supported, not based on possible future features.
  • Please continue to provide feedback and suggestions. We always read them and take them seriously. I know it's not always super obvious but it really is true.

Therefore, with respect to real time view, I can't say when or if this will be done. I have an idea in my head, and a plan, but I can't share it. Because my estimate is wrong. Probably really wrong. PS If you are an expert in agile project management with a history of accurate project completion timeline predictions, please get in touch.

Thank you immensely for your support, encouragement, and patience with us over the years.