[OKGIS] Major bug still not fixed in 9.2 SP2. FW: ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 2 Now Available for Download

Tue Apr 17 12:24:59 CDT 2007

ESRI's ArcGIS 9.2 SP2 didn't fix the bug that forced me to go back to
9.1.  Does it affect you to?

I initially installed 9.2 soon after I received it, on December 6.  I'm
no quitter with software.  Since 8.X I've always been the sort that
likes to install the new ArcGIS version, and tough it out and live with
the bugs in order to have the new features.  In the past, I've always
been able to do that successfully.  But not with 9.2.  Within a day or
two I'd run into and reported several serious bugs.  Of those, ESRI was
able to provide fixes or temporary work-arounds for all but one, the
extent rectangle/leader-line problem.  I worked with 9.2 and ESRI for
about a month, but finally had to go back to 9.1 because of this problem
after SP1 failed to fix it.

The extent rectangle/leader-line problem is essentially this.  It occurs
when you have an overview map frame with an extent rectangle in it on
your layout along with your main map frame.  When you zoom in on the
main view frame so that the ratio between the overview and the main map
is greater than about 1:100, then the extent rectangle disappears from
the overview map and the leader line shoots off of the side of the page.
The irony is that this is just the scale where the overview map becomes
crucial.  At this scale, you have no idea where you are in the state
without an overview map.  However, this is the scale where it fails.

This worked fine at 9.1, and they broke it at 9.2.

The reason this is critical for me is that I routinely use overview maps
on nearly all of my layouts and most of my maps are zoomed in to the
scale of a farm, far into the range where the problem occurs.
Additionally, I have created numerous ArcReader applications and
deployed them to still more numerous users at my agency, who greatly
enjoy the ability to zoom in on individual farms or facilities with an
aerial photo background and have the overview map show them exactly
where they are in the state.  If I were to deploy 9.2, then all of those
would fail 95% of the time.

One thing about this issue is significant.  It might seem like this is
an insignificant issue, and not everyone uses overview maps and a lot of
people just draw statewide maps and don't need overviews.  Also, so much
of the excitement for us as GIS professionals is in all of the cool
functionality and technology we use behind the scenes to put create a
good looking, persuasive map from a bunch of raw data.  But that's not
what my customers care about.  They just want a map that tells the truth
and draws a clear picture and looks good, so they can make a good
decision.  This problem is just like a big, fat infected pimple right in
the middle of your forehead.  When it happens, it can be a big
distraction and makes you look bad.  When this problem occurs, it makes
the map less effective, and it makes them look bad, and me look bad, and
my agency look bad.  There is no work-around and removing the overview
map from all of my maps and ArcReader applications is out of the
question.  So it isn't a small problem.

Currently, ESRI has listed this bug as Medium priority, and has chosen
not to fix it at SP2.  If you have encountered this problem and have
been living with it, or if you think it's something that ought to be
fixed for your future purposes, then please contact ESRI tech support
and ask that its priority be elevated to high and that it be fixed at
the next service pack or as a separate patch.  The bug ID is NIM005472.

It's worth noting some things about 9.2 and SP2.  The first is the
enormous number of bugs that ESRI did address, more than 500, just in
SP2, on top of 150 in SP1, and that includes ignoring serious issues
like the one discussed above.  And this is all within just 5 months of
initial release.  This is far, far more than any other single Service
Pack since the start of ArcGIS.  It reflects both the serious initial
quality problems in 9.2, as well as ESRI's commitment to do something
about it.

Here's a short table showing numbers of bugs fixed in the various
service packs on the ESRI web site.
	9.2 SP2  >500 bugs
	9.2 SP1  >150 bugs

	9.1 SP2  >200 bugs
	9.1 SP1  ~120 bugs

	9.0 SP3  ~400  (Includes all of the bug fixes of 9.0 SP2 and
SP1)

	8.3 SP3  27 bugs  (Includes SP1 & 2)
	8.2 SP2  9 bugs  (Includes SP1)
	8.1.2 SP1  18 bugs
	8.1 SP1 >100 bugs

Please let ESRI know about problems you encounter.  It's the only way
they'll get fixed.

Thanks,

David Wheelock     Application Specialist     david at oda.state.ok.us

Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry
2800 North Lincoln Boulevard
Oklahoma City, OK 73105-4298
Phone: (405) 522-5477 FAX: (405) 522-3590
http://www.oda.state.ok.us

"We are usually convinced more easily by reasons we have found
ourselves, 
than by those which have occurred to others."
Pascal <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaise_Pascal> 

________________________________

From: aprimo_bounce at esri.com [mailto:aprimo_bounce at esri.com] On Behalf
Of ESRI Announcements
Sent: Tuesday, April 17, 2007 2:02 AM
To: David W. Wheelock
Subject: ArcGIS 9.2 Service Pack 2 Now Available for Download

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://gis.ou.edu/pipermail/okgis/attachments/20070417/81c55f97/attachment.htm