Latest Contributions by H__AlexHuskey

Julie: Yes it seems like someone’s in cahoots with the gaming computer makers! But even our servers can’t keep up, so it’s really a terrible software problem on Esri’s part. They’re emphasizing Cloud services but not paying attention to the obstacles along the way. The captive audience won’t always remain that way! Sincerely, Alex H. Alexander Huskey Engineering Technician [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> 303/349-6986 cell Bakken Operations Map - XTO Staff Only<https://xto.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=08480eaf0c8a449d9e8fc51d21933006> Bakken Business Unit / ExxonMobil Unconventional 321 22nd Avenue East Williston ND 58802 ... View more

Marco: It's great to e-meet you as a kindred spirit trying to save the pioneer of computerized mapping from itself! I like your idea of stopping further development until strong action is taken to catch up with eternal defects. It's mind-blowing to read Esri sales literature touting new or planned features when we can hardly do our daily work with the current programs. Deploying a SWAT team would require a Steve Jobs of Esri to give the orders--is there one of those around? Here's what Apple veteran  Michael Hageloh wrote in Live from Cupertino: "Jobs believed the market might not articulate what it wants, but it “knows what it needs,” and provides guidance in the form of “unspoken clues": For example, he perceived consumers’ frustration with MP3 players—due to bad control functions and limited storage, among other flaws—as a broad need for an innovative alternative. The market did not ask for the iPod, but it “clearly needed it.” The difference with Esri is that the market is yelling out what we need. There's also a chance that some of Esri's inaction is based in the Microsoft business model which perpetuates busywork & vendor lock-in, and hence fees for customer service & licensing income--they don't want mapping to be too easy or affordable! ... View more

Drew: There may be many factors causing inflated file size, but the elephant in the room is why are they allowed to swell that way? Esri should provide functionality to obviate detective work on the user's part, and eliminate automatically what's interfering with performance. Geoprocessing history? Why is it allowed to hamper our work? History can be logged somewhere out of the way and accessed only when needed. Map graphics? If they're necessary for one's map, then ArcPro has got to handle them fast. If best practices deem that graphics not be used, and other functionality can fill the need, the software should say so, or better alternatives should be part of beginner training. The upshot is that Esri should be doing a whole lot more for the map author, especially reducing our clicking & repetitive tasks so we can create geo experiences for our audience. ... View more

Marco: It's a given that horsepower helps with software, but the problems of Chris and Jakub call for an Esri SWAT team, not their evasions & excuses. I tried using ArcGIS Pro (via Citrix at enterprise scale) and it's so horribly slow that I've given up. ArcPro is supposed to be stepping toward robust, fast, capable Cloud performance and is anything but. One experienced Esri support person told me the reason ArcPro takes so long to open a project is that it's scanning for every GIS related file in the folder--but no reason why. There can be no  justifiable reason for bad user experience. Our layouts and titles and projects shouldn't require authors to be detectives. This software provider is in the dark ages of customer service and needs to get with the program. I want to make online maps that make location info intuitive for my users, not fuss with software problems. Why does Esri relegate users to a suggestion box where only minor enhancements are implemented, instead of the bedrock functionality of the whole mapping program? ... View more

Bill: Thanks for putting the matter in the largest perspective, Esri's perpetual disservice to customers! If the market for professional GIS software were anywhere near the size of "consumer" services, Google would've fleshed out Google Earth to take over from Esri, and in the Cloud at that. But lacking that (because Google takes in $70 billion a year not subject to commodity prices, etc) we're left with smaller but ambitious companies. Mapbox is looking more and more like a well-rounded contender. Do you know of a consortium or group of GIS pros seriously working toward a way out of Esri's monopoly?  ... View more

Vladimir: Yes, and ironically I've been told by Esri Support folks that old ArcMap Help isn't being maintained or enhanced anymore because all efforts are going to ArcGIS Pro. But if Pro's Help actually lacks good explanations & screenshots, where are the efforts really going? ... View more

Drew: Thanks for the encouraging news, and I've emailed you to find out more information about possible participation. The main difference seems to be that Esri's Holistic Testing focuses on new releases, while users are mainly concerned with the lack of progress in existing software. The elephant in the room is the obvious lack of users at Esri itself--because if they were present & accounted for, not only would outright bugs be found before customers suffer, but they'd raise Cain about having to click forever into buried settings to get things done, and point out the many unintuitive steps required to do things that ArcMap ought to do automatically after all these decades. But there's always the possibility that internal Esri users aren't the type to ruffle company feathers, and might simply acquiesce to "the way we've always done it." This is no time to rest on one's laurels and remind users to appreciate Esri's hard work which moved beyond the days of pen and paper--because that's pretty condescending don't you think? By that token we should be happy with Excel and not expect Robotic Business Processes or elastic Cloud compute. ... View more

Scott: Yes, all those factors contribute to the problems we all share. Meanwhile, there's a whole world of Cloud and Containers opening up, with only lip service from Esri. The backward compatibility challenges might be a misguided way to perpetuate their business model, but the lack of forward motion is disturbing. There are no real competitors, because most GIS upstarts aim for low-hanging fruit like providing simple maps embedded on websites with a few functions. Mapbox is there, and all the visualization programs like Tableau, Spotfire, etc are happy with rudimentary maps as-is. Google Earth seemed on its way to conquering the professional mapping world with innovations nobody else saw coming, but its founders are distracted by shiny objects, balloons, and language research. We need to catch the ear of an Esri "intrapreneur" who'd like to make money by wrenching cartography into the 21st century at last, and bid the early 2000's goodbye. They'll have to embrace Cloud, and elastic compute that can free us from on-prem CPU/ GPU tyranny. ... View more

Scott: You took the words right out of my mouth! The gist of the answers is basically: let's keep things hard for the user, because Esri staff is too busy taking care of real problems. Let's make paying customers do the legwork of documenting problems, because Esri has no actual users. But If they were using the software every day, they'd find the problems and could likely fix them before customers are impacted. Maybe it's not that Esri staff prefers to deal with "real" problems (whatever those are) because maybe there there are simply too many problems. In that case, hire more staff! We need founder Jack Dangermond to spend some time making maps in Pro (or Desktop, for that matter) and witness first-hand the problems we're exposed to. Even more intense: Jack could spend time with a group of customers actively doing their daily routines (hosted at Esri HQ for camaraderie and immediacy) where he'd be able to field their challenges as they happen. A development SWAT team could also be right there, working in Extreme Programming style (where two share one screen to supercharge their effectiveness) to analyze and resolve the problems. This is far beyond customer focus groups or blogs with suggestions. I'm ready to take part in the HQ customer workgroup and strut my errors! ... View more

Matthew: I didn't mean to imply that a solution would be simple, but it could be quicker than one would suppose. That's why the reference to a SWAT team is appropriate: a concentrated effort with UX folks and GIS developers would "move the needle"--whereas surveys and blogs like this aren't getting the job done. The puny functionality of ArcGIS Online would also benefit from this approach. Technically, remedies might entail containerizing the app or variants of that technique; there are many options. In the big picture I agree that hard work led to computerized mapping in the first place, and none of us miss drafting on vellum with Rotring & Rapidograph pens--but now's not the time to rest on one's laurels. ... View more

Jamal makes excellent points, and I'm not even a Pro user yet! Its advantages are tempting but the slowness sounds terrible. Truth be told, ArcGIS Desktop has crazy slowness at times, maybe cos it's running through Citrix here. In any case, the hundred replies here indicate that Esri is not moving fast enough. Esri needs to deploy a SWAT team of User eXperience folks who can pinpoint the flaws, and work right there with the sharpest developers to make the changes. Maybe Esri's business model will have to change, but then again--that's what kept Microsoft from going under: late in the game they embraced Cloud and Open Source and left behind their old Bill Gates monopolizing ways. Esri's bizarre credit structure is hampering progress in the GIS world, and only because Google is too big to bother with the technical GIS market do they survive with little competition. ... View more

Marco: Then the obvious remedy is to leave Windows behind and embrace Chrome till Microsoft gets their act together. MS is marketing Azure but neglecting to make their huge infrastructure work for customers. It's like the old Mac vs Windows rivalry, but within Microsoft itself! ... View more

Garrett: That's definitely frustrating, and prompts the question of why Esri doesn't set up application performance monitoring to notice orphan processes. A tool that's taking too long to load should trigger action on the part of Esri staff, and notification to the user and our support teams. ... View more

I've wanted an easy way to export Attribute Tables from ArcGIS Desktop (haven't used Pro yet) and ArcGIS Online, so I'd add that it shouldn't only be within the map extent, but also be able to export the whole Attribute Table when desired. Maybe even a column picklist could be included, so we don't have to clean up as much in Excel after exporting. ... View more