Whoops! Sorry that last post was to go to Manuel directly. Since it did go to
the list instead, I feel I need to clarify a few things for those of you that do
not know me as well as Manuel.
1. Tango is an excellent solution for quick Web development right now and
will be for at least a year or more. I looked at some others before I bought
Tango and it appeared to be the easiest to use and learn. I still do not know
of any product that is better. (I just wish I had some clients that were more
interested in using it!)
2. I do have faith in RBTI even with Tango. They have obtained excellent
licensing for Tango at very reasonable prices and passed them on to us (the
developers and users). The tech support by RBTI for Tango has been
excellent. I just wish that Pervasive was still developing and improving the
product. They are the ones I do not have faith in. I would be very happy
indeed if RBTI would buy it and continue development and support like they
have for R:Base. This may be too big of a bite for them but you never know
what suprises the Doctor may have up his sleeve! RBTI made the right
decision to add Tango to their line of products when they made it and it is
still the right decision. I do have faith that in the future, if Tango does not
provide the best solution then RBTI will come up with something that will
provide it. In the meantime, scripting languages like VBScript, PHP, and ASP
will fill the gaps.
3. I have never used MySQL but I did look at doing so during the time period
between the demise of Microrim and the rise of RBTI. I know one developer
(a none R:Base developer) that uses it and from what I have been told by
him it is a good solution for small databases but is more time consuming to
develop with. I do not think you can beat the data integrity of R:Base and the
pricing is very reasonable. Other advantages of R:Base are the speed with
which bug fixes and enhancements are completed. You will not find a lot of
the enhancements in many other databases that you do with R:Base- it has
always been a leader in this department. I am looking forward to the
enhancements to be seen in the next few releases. Last but not least, between
RBTI and this mailing list, the tech support for R:Base is exceptionally good,
and in fact probably better then you will find for any product anywhere.
4. As always the downside to free software is that it will not have all the
features of commercial software, the tech support will probably be worse for
free software, and clients that are trying to cut every corner very often
cannot afford our services either. Another downside is that it usually takes
longer to learn free software because the tutorials and help generally receive
the least attention of all. Free software (with a few exceptions) is only good if
you have a lot more time than money- not an enviable position to be in.
5. I do support looking into open source products that compete with
Microsoft's products. I could give a long list of gripes I have with them but I
will not. I do realize the valuable contributions Microsoft has made in getting
the industry to where it is today, but I am less than happy with many of their
current products/solutions.
I hope that clarifys things, and again I am sorry for the erroneous post.
Best regards,
Mike Young
