Is PSP really full of bugs?

[brucet]

I read most posts on these forums and try to help when I have an idea. I continually see and read about how PSP is full of 'bugs' and wont work. So I'm going to ask a simple question and see what answers/feedback I get!!!

Question - How many issues that we read about on these forums are actually 'bugs' within PSP. ie coding errors or 'broken' logic? Or put another way, how many issues that we read about are actually a result of our own systems not being compatible with the code that the PSP developers have developed? (I'll bet everyone of us has made some customised changes to our operating systems. For instance a simple Win mod can and does affect some PSP actions. So is that PSP's fault? Can we expect Corel/developers to take into account every possible combination?)

Keep in mind that a number of posts on these forums are also gripes about a change, for better or worse, that Corel has made that we simply don't like. Colour Wheel!!!!!!!

I wonder what the scene is like over on the Adobe forums.

regards

[Joelle]

I use X8 without too many problems, there are some things I don't like - the new colour wheel is not to my liking at all, the overly large Materials Palette needs to be shrunk back to normal size, etc, but they aren't bugs, just 'improvements'.
Sometimes what is seen as a bug is actually something to do with the computer and other software perhaps interfering?, as different people seem to see different things.

I am sure the Mudhut program isn't bug-less either

Joëlle

[dsigman]

I have also used Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC and have now started using Capture One Pro 8 as a RAW editor. They too have bugs and crash unexpectedly. I think that a lot of problems occur because of programs running in the background.

[photodrawken]

...
Or put another way, how many issues that we read about are actually a result of our own systems not being compatible with the code that the PSP developers have developed?
...

That seems like a truly bizarre example of twisted logic -- blame problems on a well-known, thoroughly documented, tested and regularly updated operating system (or hardware) instead of the software program that doesn't work on the system.

Isn't that like saying that the deaths in Paris last Friday were not the fault of the terrorists, but the fault of the 129 people who got in the way of the bullets?

Remember how long it took for the infamous "extra space" problem with the PSP text tool to be fixed? That problem exploded in X3 and wasn't fixed for about two years (in X5). I've seen messages in this forum from PSP beta testers who responded to a user's complaint about a bug that "Yeah, we reported it during testing but Corel released the product anywhay." Like it or not, Corel has had the reputation for the last twenty years of releasing buggy software, and that's over a whole lot of new hardware and operating systems.

[brucet]

photodrawken you have miss understood my point. I'm not blaming folks such as Microsoft. Not at all. No my point was that 'we' the user have compatibility issues due to things 'we' have done with our systems. ie we may have firewalls or security systems running that Corel haven't foreseen. We may have other software running in the background that is conflicting with PSP's requirements. (In my case Nikon's NX-D will hamper the performance of PSP in such away that I don't run either while running the other).

There are a zillion combinations and Corel can't be expected to make allowance for them all.

We have to be aware that 'some' issues may not be of Corels doing. Looking elsewhere often solves a perceived PSP issue.

regards

[LeviFiction]

I agree wholeheartedly brucet. But at the same time Corel doesn't necessarily always follow Windows best practices.

Anyway, no matter what software you use, so long as it is sufficiently complex there will be bugs. Some of them come from the system they are on, others come from how they interact with that system, and still others come from poor coding. For example Photoshop would crash when certain fonts were loaded. At one point PSP would crash if the description EXIF tag was greater than 256 characters. There's also the memory leak in scripting in X8 where if you use FileSaveAs in a batch process it never releases the memory it's used to edit the files but using FileSave instead does.

Corel has, I will admit, been very slow in fixing certain things they brake. And sometimes making features that are supposed to sound attractive but are little more than fluff.

But to answer the original question. No I would not say PSP is "full" of bugs. Bugs do exist, annoying little buggers that are just downright weird sometimes. And they can infuriate. But I think the last "full of bugs" version was X3. That thing could barely be utilized well into its third patch. Something I believe Corel has learned from.

[photodrawken]

photodrawken you have miss understood my point.

Then I apologize.

There are a zillion combinations and Corel can't be expected to make allowance for them all.

I still don't buy that excuse, however.

The firewalls and security systems you mention should have absolutely no effect on an image editor. The Nikon software you mention should never "hamper" PSP's performance. The key factor is this: If other software runs just fine with all those programs running, and it's only PSP that suffers, then the fault is clearly with PSP. Are other image editing programs affected the same way?

In other words, to state the obvious fact that software usually has bugs excuses way too much. Everyone knows that a program potentially has bugs. The real questions are

• How does the company treat problems with its software?
• Do they thoroughly test the software before releasing it?
• Do they hold back the release of the software until the reported bugs have been fixed?
• Are the bugs that remain in the released software severe?

I agree with LeviFiction that the phrase "full of bugs" can be somewhat misleading. But, in my opinion, if we as users want to receive software in the future that works really well, we should not be tolerant now and excuse problems by saying "Oh well, all software has bugs" or "Ah, you never know what other stuff is doing". Hogwash! Simply following best coding practices ensures your software won't be affected by "other stuff".

Take a look at other image editors and make your own list of the problems in each one and their severity. Then hold your favorite to a high standard and tell them their problems are intolerable. Doing anything less will only perpetuate getting malfunctioning software.

[brucet]

Don't anyone get me wrong. I'm not batting for Corel. Like anyone who produces any product they are responsible for the end product. Now days consumers expect a lot for their hard earned money. Producers, if they want to survive, simply have to address consumer concerns. Simple supply and demand. However customer service is critical. Corel, or anyone else, ignores their customers at their peril. (Many many moons ago I was a programmer/designer. Remember Fortan? Pascal? Basic? DBase? I'm aware of how 'bugs' creep into software and I'm aware that they are hard to find. But they simple have to be found). I was once an AfterShotPro user. It failed me once to often so I moved on. But to Corel's credit they had folks who 'communicated' via that forum. If only Corel would make a better effort to acknowledge some of the issues raise on this forum. A few simple lines of text would go a long way to helping everyone understand where PSP stands in their food chain.

My initial post was simply to make folks aware that not every issue with PSP is a PSP 'bug'. There are other issues that need to be taken into consideration as well.

regards

[photodrawken]

Remember Fortan?

As a matter of fact, I do remember Fortran from my University days. It only took one time of inadvertently knocking the box of keypunched cards onto the floor and having to do the old "300 card pickup" to learn to always number the cards...

Sorry about this digression. We now return to our regularly scheduled program....

[pdxrjt]

In regards to the OP, it may be full of bugs but generally does what I want to do just fine. There are things I don't like about it and the occasional glitch, but I haven't found a perfect program yet.

[rondo]

Issue that most concerns me is Corel's Installer for PSP and it's other products- way too many reported problems.
PSP is less buggy than Corel's Painter software. I know there are little quirks that I don't like in PSP, but overall on the X6 64 bit version I use there are seldom any crashes or freezes, and the other little bugs I can work around.
Always room for improvement.

[BIG BUG]

I realized today that this "little" Corel Update Helper (x64) which runs in automatically in background had serious impact on my system performance (on Windows 10 64bit that is).

I've been using PSP for almost 20 years now (since PSP 4 on Windows 3.11) and while it is a cheap and feature rich alternative to Photoshop and even better handling (for me), it always had some bugs and annoying things here and there (but never mayor stability issues).

[JoeB]

I realized today that this "little" Corel Update Helper (x64) which runs in automatically in background had serious impact on my system performance (on Windows 10 64bit that is).

You can disable it. Can't remember if it's an option in the program (like unchecking messages) or if I did it by disabling a service. I'm using X7 by the way.