G'day Manuel,
At 22:44 12/07/01 -0700, you wrote:
> Today I got off the wrong side of the bed
It shows! <g> I, too, have fallen into the trap of expressing
myself publicly when I feel like a bear with a sore head.
Rarely have I found it successful and nearly always when I am
feeling less grouchy have I regretted it.
>Mike, you keep praising a language (VB) but fail to mention how Microsoft has
>screwed all the developers and end users that have loyally supported that
>platform for years. With the advent of the VB.NET platform now 90% of
>complex VB 6.0 code that developers have written will BECOMES OBSOLETE.
By what standard? Just because it is not the latest and greatest?
I challenge the sanity in that standard. If it delivers on the original
project specs, it is a better than average application.
>Major costly rework will be needed by the developers in order to make it
>work with the new incompatible version of VB.
I'm no slavish fan of MS or any other vendor but I think you've taken an
extreme viewpoint here my friend. While I sympathise with the client
in that scenario, if I were he, I would only be spending the $ if I were to
get some extra mileage from the new features. Presumably mileage
in relation to cost. I would not be forced into changing the code if I
did not need the extra functionality.
As I understand the changes (mostly from Mike's posts) they were
made to provide additional functionality, requested by many.
>I wonder WHY ARE YOU USING RBASE!
Quite simply because he is smart/brave enough to have invested
the time to learn more than one tool and be able to provide the
appropriate solution to his clients.
>In your comments, you give Rbase a small "at boy" with a light
>tap on the back with your right hand and a left hook to the gut
>with the other. Why do you do this?
I think this is a misperception that you will probably regret having
written. Check out Mike's web site. His support of R:Base on
his web site and the developer community on this list is extensive.
>Is is not design for force you into a more expensive system when you
>grow. It has tremendous developers tools. These tools translate into
>faster development and if It can be developed in less time IT WILL
>SIMPLY COST YOU LESS.
I think the main point that is being missed is the differentiation
between the fact that VB is purely a language and R:BASE is
a database as well as a language and form and report designer.
Now not yet having written a line of code in VB I speak from no
great height of authority, but I have had a couple of things written
for me in VB that R:BASE could not do and BizMan would be the
poorer without. And being able to click on the heading of a
column in a scrolling region and have the rows reorder according
to that column is a feature I am looking forward to providing my
customers. But I could not have written BizMan in VB in the
time it has taken me to write it in R:BASE. So it is a matter of
horses for courses.
Sure an app in R:BASE will cost less to provide, up to one sixth
the cost, according to one of my sources, BUT IF YOU NEED THE
FEATURES ONLY VB CAN PROVIDE, YOU NEED TO SPEND
THE $ TO DEVELOP IN VB. It is just very fortunate for me that
I have had to spend as little as I have to get graphing, document
management and call reminders as VB modules for BizMan. And
also very fortunate for me that version 7.0 of R:BASE looks like
holding many of the goodies that will close much of the more
noticeable GUI gaps between it and VB.
>I have been involved in Database Development since 1985. After
>frustrations with MSBasic and dBase, I chose RBase because it was the most
>complete and robust database environment, from a developer perspective, on
>the market. I remember how dBase was the word in everybody's lip and how
>this pseudo relational database was praise by all the "experts". RBase
>has been around for a long long time and during this time it has evolved
>and improved to the best database engine in its class in the world.
No one is challenging that.
>RBASE CUSTOMERS YOU HAVE MADE THE RIGHT CHOICE, NOT ONLY BECAUSE OF THE
>PRODUCT
>YOU HAVE PURCHASED BUT THE PEOPLE THAT DRIVE THE PRODUCT.
I don't perceive Mike has done anything to diminish that perception.
A while ago I sold a copy of R:BASE to a publican who had tried to
do something in VB and gotten hopelessly bogged. R:BASE is
what R:BASE is. An excellent database engine with an improving
development environment.
In closing...
I am told in Japan some factories have a small room set aside
where an employee can take a stick, fist or foot to a punching
bag effigy of their boss. Manuel, it seems like you and I should
maybe try that tack instead of "going nuclear" via communication
until we feel calmer.
Tom Grimshaw
coy: Just For You Software
tel: 612 9552 3311
fax: 612 9566 2164
mobile: 0414 675 903
post: PO Box 470 Glebe NSW 2037 Australia
street: 3/66 Wentworth Park Rd Glebe NSW 2037
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
web: www.just4usoftware.com.au
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