Version Aversion

by Budly

You can always spot the pioneers, because they're the people with the arrows in their back.

When it comes to computers, few things can get a seasoned computer user crazier than a new version of an old, familiar software package that doesn't look like what you knew, and doesn't work the way it used to.

Kinda like Office 07 or (the disappearing) Vista - but those are stories for a different day.

Letters and spreadsheets get built at about the speed at which you can type. Image and video files can be of substantial size and require "rendering" - the churning a computer does in order to build the video or image file.

Since I started using Photoshop in version 2, there have been some changes - both in the software and hardware.

With v2, a command would be started and you could go clean the dishes. When you got back to your computer, the timer bar would still be running so you could vacuum the living room. When that job was done, there would still be time to scrub the bathroom.

The two major outcomes from the exercise were:

1. Your house was really clean.
2. You learned to carefully pre-plan what you wanted Photoshop to do and worked with a very high degree of precision because "Undo" was equally as painful.

Part of the reason for so much time, is that in the "heat of battle", when PhotoShop is actually working on your image, it is keeping track of 3 versions of your file. In simple terms:

1. Your original
2. The changes you did - also known as "history"
3. The change you are currently doing

This allows PhotoShop to go back in time and give the user a new lease on life. (If Adobe could figure out how to do that concerning last night's drinking and car accident, they would have a VERY highly marketable product on their hands.)

However, to keep track of three files, means that your computer needs to store the three files. This requires a large hard drive and plenty of RAM. Remember: you can never be too thin or have too much RAM. Also: the more you can store, the more you can lose; so backup.

With most imaging / rendering software, a second hard drive - called a scratch disk - allows the program to run faster. It does this by having one hard drive run the computer and software (operating system and application) and the other hard drive work on the image - rather than having one drive do double duty.

A magazine cover could be a 40 or 50 megabyte file. PhotoShop tracks three versions. That's 150 megabytes to read / write while simultaneously keeping the computer awake and the software running - kinda like a one armed paper hanger.

Today, there is sooo much creative power packed into the software - and the hardware runs big files sooo quick it can practically make your picture before you think of what you want to do.

Software allows you to do great stuff. Write stories, make pictures, create videos - lots of creative pursuits. But, to make a program do what you'd like it to do requires a substantial investment of time and a learning curve. Nobody double-clicks Adobe PhotoShop and creates a Mona Lisa in an hour. It takes time to pre-visualize what you want to make. Then it takes time to learn how to tell the software to do what you want it to do. PhotoShop can put layers, text and countless effects into an image - to name just a few of the things the program is capable of doing.

Now, imagine having spent the time learning how to do be a PhotoShop Fighter Jock only to discover that in the newer version of your favorite software, the developer has moved or hidden all of the things you knew how to do really quickly!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!

Moral of the story:

Let other people get the latest and greatest versions of software. Then you can watch them get all bent out of shape and demented while climbing the learning curve. Meanwhile, read reviews, look at the new version online, bring a six pack over to your friend's house and mooch theirs. And best of all, save your money and your sanity.