[DXLog.net - Support] New User on board

[John Warburton G4IRN]

Hi

As a long time Win-Test user, I've recently come across  DXLog and 
thought I'd drop a note to the reflector to give my initial thoughts on 
the product and make some (constructive, I hope!) suggestions for going 
forward.

Firstly - a great effort! I'm sure lots of time has been put into 
developing this for the benefit of other hams. Many thanks to Chris and 
the team.

Win-Test, in my mind, was definitely the best contest logging software 
available for some time. However given the lack of development progress, 
it doesn't shine like it used to. There is certainly room in the market 
for another product to take the initiative and progress forward.

One of DXLog's best features appears to be the contest templates; this 
certainly addresses many of the complaints that Win-Test used to get. 
Here in the UK we have a monthly RSGB data modes contest that uses RTTY 
and PSK modes - something that the Win-Test guys always refused to 
develop - it's great to see the MMVARI interface included!

 From a personal point of view for my DXpeditioning and Voodoo Contest 
Group involvement, features that I would like to see included in DXLog 
are the Quick QSL Counter, custom variables, user profiles (log on to 
recover your own keyboard configuration) and a mult-passing feature (I 
have some ideas around this which I'd be happy to go through). There is 
also a discussion within the GR2HQ team (IARU contest team), from which 
I think a coordinated request for features will come.

 From a potential user perspective, it would be  useful to understand 
the vision and strategy you have for the product. For instance, are you 
planning on incorporating many more features and what sort of features 
will be either accept or reject?  I'm sure people are calling out ideas 
from all directions (like me!) and there is a danger here that DXLog 
will become too complex and/or change too quickly - frequent change 
brings instability and will lose user confidence. An enhancement roadmap 
would be good for the development team and to set expectations to the 
user community.

And finally, don't feel that you should make it look and feel exactly 
like Win-Test - IMHO, whilst you should retain the compatibility with 
CT, you can develop DXLog to have its own character. The Win-Test guys 
did a great job but there is more than one way to skin a cat.

73 John G4IRN.
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