I can see a couple of problems with the Visual Studio style approach.
a) No separate cash flows. This means that apps like Interbase that are
bundled with other apps, can be starved of development funds because
they are not seen as valuable cash generators to the pointy headed
bosses.
Imagine everybody buying 'Borland Developer Network' (if it had existed
in 1995) to get Delphi. The bundled copy of Visual DBase might have
ended up with more development $$$ than Delphi simply because the
decision where to spend the R & D money comes down to management. Given
that Inprise like any other company has limited resources, I am selfish
& would like a very large percentage of Borland money spent on Delphi
and not stuff I don't use. MS don't have to worry about cash flows of
course, I suspect that the main aim was to kill competition via
bundling, (imagine the conversation "I want to buy JBuilder", "Why - we
already have J++ has part of VisStudio - its good enough")
b) Cost - with bundling, you have to pay more for the stuff you not use,
(why should I have to pay for VB when I buy Visual C++?) It might be
cheaper buying a bundle rather than all the individual items but then
how many people would actually go out & buy all the stuff thrown in
MSDN?
b) Shovelware (ie MSDN) - getting a bunch of CD's for your money does
not impress me much if the vendor is simply dumping junk in, (if I
wanted the debug build of Bulgerian/Arabic NTS I would ask for it!).
That being said I liked seeing older version of JBuilder/CBuilder thrown
in with D5 - useful to have access to the stuff when translating C ->
Delphi etc.
Perhaps a better approach is to have more integration rather than
bundling - ie have a Delphi IDE able to mix & match 'units' written in
Java, C++ or Pascal. Compiling Delphi to a Java VM sort of thing. I
have not seen it but apparently D5 has taken a step towards having a
data modeller built in data-module - to me this sounds like a better
approach than throwing some unrelated & not the best of breed tool, (eg
ReportSmith?) in the box .
All that being said, I think that the sad fact is that when buying
software, the people writing the checks want to see a big box for the
money and actual quality or programmer productivity is hard for them to
see.
Grant Black
Software Developer
SmartMove (NZ) Ltd
Phone: +64 9 361-0219 extn 719
Fax : +64 9 361-0211
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gary T. Benner [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 22, 1999 4:56 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list offtopic
> Subject: [DUG-OFFTOPIC]: More on the Wish List - not What but How.
>
>
> [Reply]
>
> Hi all,
>
> One issue I would like to raise, is the way that Delphi and
> other Borland tools are marketed to developers. I'm putting
> this forward as I would like to get some feedback on what
> others think, and how their situation would fit.
>
> At the moment, the Borland tools are sold "product
> concentric". ie you buy a product and you use it. If you are like me,
> then you tend to specialise in one tool, but may not be
> confined to that alone. For most of us it is enough to buy one
> tool and concentrate on that. If you are using Client Server
> or Enterprise versions that is certainly the case.
>
> I would like to see a situation where the sales and marketing
> was "developer concentric". ie a developer "registers"
> with Borland, and pays a fee for the use of a complete
> toolset - ie all tools. Remember that a developer only has a
> certain number of hours or days in the year to work, and
> whether it is with one tool or two (or three), does not make
> much difference to their income generating capability, but
> there are times when you come across a need to work with
> another tool ( say Java ) for a time, and there is not a
> business case to justify another $NZ5,000 for that part of your
> work.
>
> What do you do? An option would find another tool supplier
> with less cost ( some are for free ) to deal with that. In
> this case, the cost forces the developer away from Borland.
>
> I would propose that the developer concentric marketing could
> provide options not only for tools, but support also.
> This situation could also lend itself to "leasing" of the
> software, so one was able to take out a yearly contract and pay
> quarterly perhaps. Even out the cashflow on both sides of the
> equation.
>
> I understand that Microsoft are now tending to package their tools.
>
> As others have indicated, there is a need for integrated
> modelling tools etc.
>
> Any other ideas here?
>
> kr
>
> Gary
>
>
>
> ========================================================
>
> Gary Benner - Software Developer
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Corporate Software New Zealand Limited Auckland - New Zealand
> tel: +64-9 846-6067 (24hr) fax: +64-9 846-6152 mob:
> (021)-966-992
> Software System Design - Consulting - Mentoring -
> Data Modelling
> Client Server - Delphi - Interbase - Oracle - Web-based
> Technologies
> Electronic Automation and Systems - Microcontroller Design & Software
> http://www.corporate.co.nz
>
> Ref#: 41006
>
>
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