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Brendan Tompkins [MVP]

Blog First. Ask Questions Later.

Crystal finds a Scapegoat...

Word of mouth is that Service Pack 2 for Windows XP breaks the Crystal Reports Designer.  Indeed, there's a long list of the things that SP2 breaks.  But on Crystal's site, we see this little gem:

Status:

Not a Crystal Problem

Product:

Crystal Enterprise Professional

Reported Version:

10.0.0.0 Crystal Enterprise Professional

Applies to:

All versions

Bit Version:

32 Bit

Assuming that they are blanket passing the blame, which kind of seems like they are, the funny thing about this is most developers realize that stuff like this breaks because it wasn't coded according to the best practices at the time. I would venture to guess that if we could peek at the code, the underling problem is BAD CODE.  Now, who's fault is it in the end?  Of course the majority of the blame lies with Microsoft.  Shame on them for breaking such an important application.  But, is this “Not a Crystal Problem”?  I'd say that it's a BIG Crystal problem. I've never seen the Crystal code under the covers, but I've seen it break enough to know that the underlying code base is probably a mess.

-Brendan



Comments

Brendan Tompkins said:

"Brittle" that's a perfect description. Should be part of our vernacular, if it isn't already.

Before this turns into an all out Crystal Bash... Nevermind, go ahead and bash away... ;)
# October 21, 2004 5:32 AM

Scott Allen said:

"Not a Crystal Problem" - I want that made into a bumpersticker.
# October 21, 2004 7:00 AM

Rob said:


Go directly to...

http://www.datadynamics.com/Products/ProductMenu.aspx?Product=ARNET

...and never, ever look back....you won't be sorry. I did and I'm not! :)
# October 21, 2004 7:17 AM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Yes. I've heard good things about them. I wish it was that easy. I don't know of anyone who "chooses" to use Crystal. It's one of those decisions that seems to be made by the non-implementors. At least in my experience.
# October 21, 2004 7:21 AM

Michael said:

I use the Crystal Reports crap that is bundled with VS.NET and haven't had it bomb on me (have had sp2 installed for a month+) yet. But I've been checking out SQL Reporting Services lately and like it a whole lot more. :)
# October 21, 2004 7:44 AM

Darrell said:

"It's one of those decisions that seems to be made by the non-implementors."

The same could be said for Cognos.
# October 21, 2004 7:44 AM

Anon said:

Yeah we've just moved all our stuff away from Crystal and onto ReportingServices - apart from a couple of installation problems we've had nothing but fun* with it - so far.


* Well you know, as much fun as you possibly can have whilst writing reports.
# October 21, 2004 8:35 PM

Kyle said:

I don't mind Crystal...much better than products from Cognos or Actuate...
# October 22, 2004 11:20 AM

Coco the monkey said:

Hey Brendan, I hear the only 'scapedgoat is the one that got away from you in the barn.

Crystal rox!
-Coco
# October 22, 2004 11:23 AM

Kuhan Milroy said:

Kuhan from Crystal here. We have changed the status on that Knowledge Base (KB), yes very missleading. We are running certification tests for platform compatability with SP2 this month and will be handling issues raised from customers prior and after the certification completes.
# October 22, 2004 12:05 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Kuhan.

I don't mean to be rude to you, really I don't. It's just that I can tell that you are not only Kuhan AND Coco the Monkey AND Kyle, because your IP address (204.50.113.28) is the same in all three responses. Now, one of the following has to be true:

a. You have monkeys and some weirdo named Kyle in your office and if so, you may want to call someone about that
b. You need to be careful about what you post at work... Most blog administrators get your IP address when you reply to a post. Especially when being rude, you don't want to get caught with your pants down.
# October 22, 2004 1:41 PM

Shannon J Hager said:

so did someone from CR post that junk or is it someone trying to make the Crystal Report guys look bad? Is it even possible to make Crystal Reports look worse than they already do? Is there a single product that manages to balance "popular" and "absolutely horrid" as well as Crystal Reports?
(I have been 100% free of Crystal Reports for a year now and highly encourage all developers to free themselves ASAP if they have not escaped yet.)
# October 22, 2004 2:37 PM

Frans Bouma said:

Crystal Reports was already a developer's worst nightmare 5 years ago and it hasn't changed since. I really can't believe people are still using it. Perhaps they want to get tortured by the CR designer, the random bugs popping up, the horrible integration with webforms and what not.
# October 22, 2004 9:29 PM

Anon said:

Frans, it shipped with Visual Studio and for small companies was the 'easy option'. Until we learnt from our mistake.

Brendan good call on calling out the astro-turfer :) You needn't worry about being rude to him.
# October 22, 2004 11:46 PM

Brendan Tompkins said:

Shannon.. Yeah, I thought that I could have been someone messing around, but that IP is a Business Objcets IP. ;) They did a good job spoofing if it was not a CR person
# October 23, 2004 3:01 AM

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[URL=http://wcoymljj.com]eermdtbc[/URL]  <a href="http://wtberkkl.com">tuhkbpeh</a>  yrisrgck http://kwsjserq.com frtnzmou jrznsxiz

# March 8, 2007 9:30 PM

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About Brendan Tompkins

Brendan has been programming with .NET since the first public beta and is owner and operator of Port Technology Services, a consultancy company providing .NET application development services to the Maritime industry. In July, 2007, he was awarded the Microsoft MVP award for ASP.NET. He's also a proud co-founder of failed .COM startup Intrinsigo, and has had a hand in the failure of numerous other businesses. He currently runs CodeBetter.Com and Devlicio.us, and lives in Norfolk, Virgina with his wife Tiara and son Ian.

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