Finale 27.3: plug-ins

[benwiggy]

MM have issued a blog about the 'forthcoming' Finale 27.3, which they say will include a number of Jari Williamsson's plug-ins, by default. These will be ARM-native for Apple Silicon Macs.

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/sneak- ... ale-v27-3/

While this is good news, it doesn't really go far enough: if MM now have the code for these, then they should become part of the main interface, e.g. JW Change should be under Utilities > Change as the main change function.

Bolting-on more and more features in different places, instead of consolidating and revising the interface, just adds confusion. Where is that function? -- is it under one of the main menus? Or under a particular Tool's menu? Or in the plug-ins menu? The fewer places there are where things might be, the easier the app is.

[JJP]

Hear hear! Though I suspect that simply including the plugins was the most expedient and cost-effective way to get them in the program. I don't endorse that approach, but I understand if that's the case.

[dtoub]

Honestly, as many of us have used (and relied upon) these plugins for some time, it would seem to make sense to keep them as they currently are: separated in a Plugins folder lke all plugins currently are (Patterson, TGTools, etc). Something like JW Change has so much functionality I’m not sure how that would get integrated into separate functions, and it would be way clunky that way. The only issues I’ve had other than stability with some of them over the years is that I have to really think about which set has the function I’m looking for. TGTools at this point is rarely useful for me; lots of stuff might have been useful years ago but the built-in TGTools stuff is useful as is for a limited number of use cases. JW and Patterson, in contrast, are much much more useful for me and I suspect for most people.

[benwiggy]

Honestly, as many of us have used (and relied upon) these plugins for some time, it would seem to make sense to keep them as they currently are:

Long-standing users have nothing to fear. MM has, ironically, always been reluctant to implement change. The question is whether Finale's UI is an obstacle to new users.

[dtoub]

Long-standing users have nothing to fear. MM has, ironically, always been reluctant to implement change. The question is whether Finale's UI is an obstacle to new users.

My dude, if MuseScore doesn't freak out newbies, I don't think Finale would either. The most elegant UX? Nope. But beats something like GIMP (the open source multi-OS free Photoshop alternative with a horrific UI) on any day of the week ending in Y.