Technical Support

This page provides information on how to obtain technical support for DONNAY Software Products

How to get Support

Check out our Web Forums for the latest information about releases, patches and technical notes. Send an email to Roger Donnay at
or
Pick up the phone and call us at 208-867-6091

Technical Support Policy

It is our desire to insure that all eXpress++ users are satisfied users. We go through extreme measures to try to accomplish this goal, however like any other small developer, we have a limited amount of resources available to us. If we dedicate too many hours to technical support then we dedicate too few hours to development. We are trying to maintain a well-balanced effort in which the resolution of technical support issues not only satisfies the immediate needs of the customer but also that the knowledge gained from the effort is passed on to other customers and eventually will help improve the product. For such a program to be effective, it is necessary that development and technical support be part of the same team.

Typically, technical support questions fall into one of the following categories:

• 1. A catastrophic bug report.
• 2. An innocuous bug report.
• 3. An error in documentation.
• 4. A request for aid in understanding something about eXpress++.
• 5. A request for aid in understanding something about Xbase++.
• 6. A question about how to accomplish a specific task.
• 7. A request for a new feature.

The above list is in "priority" order. The highest priority is given to item #1 and the lowest priority is given to item #7.

The reason for this is multi-fold. Obviously, we have a responsibilty to develop a product with as few bugs as possible and when bugs or documentation errors are reported, we feel compelled to correct them immediately. This benefits all eXpress++ users. However, these high priority items actually consume the smallest amount of our time. This is because problems of this nature are usually easy to detect and easy to correct.

The major investment of our time is in the handling of items 4 through 6. This is because there is a "gray area" that usually clouds and confuses the technical support issue. This gray area eventually becomes either black or white once it is determined whether the customer is complaining about a problem with eXpress++, a problem with Xbase++, a problem understanding something, or simply expects our technical support staff to do their programming for them.

It is our goal to move from gray to black or white as quickly as possible so we can put the problem to rest and move on to the next issue. In order to do this we need cooperation from the customer so as to reduce our work load in helping with the problem.

If you will help us by adhering to the following guidelines, we can serve you much more efficiently:

• 1. Please post your problem on the Web Forums rather than sending an email. Priority is given to the Web Forums because the resolution to the problem can be immediately shared with other eXpress++ users and a dynamic knowledge base can be created.

• 2. Please keep the description of the problem as short and simple as possible. SET VERBOSE OFF. Give examples in the text of the posting whenever possible.

• 3. If the problem is too complicated or the example is too large to clarify in the text of the posting, add an attachment to the posting with more information and a source code sample.

• 4. When attaching source code files to help demonstrate a problem, PLEASE include all other files necessary to compile, link, and run the application snippet. Please test your upload on your own computer before sending it to us to insure that you have included everything we need. Also, make every attempt to reduce the problem to as small an application or snippet as possible. Do not upload complete applications with hundreds of files unless it is absolutely impossible or impractical to do otherwise. It is our experience that the more files you include, the more likely it is that something is missing.

• 5. Please give priority to issues that you cannot resolve yourself. The Web Forums exist for aid in solving problems, not as a resource of free programmers. All Xbase++ and eXpress++ developers who frequent this forum are professional developers who value their time. It is a professional, well-focused forum dedicated to the resolution of Xbase++, eXpress++ and any other Xbase++ addon product distributed by Donnay Software.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Roger Donnay

eXpress++ 1.9

The current version of eXpress++ is 1.9 (build 260).