Sean W Ferguson wrote: > Interesting product. How does it compare to Visage? From a quick > glance at the DesignBais website they look very similar in concept and > design. > http://www.staminasoftware.com/Products/Visage/Products_Visage.htm
I have no experience with Visage yet, outside of presentations at various Spectrum shows, but from what I've seen it's more "complex" than DesignBais. I distinguish between features and complexity. In my mind, DesignBais will appeal to a wider variety of Pick developers because it does not expose them to HTML, scripting, components, etc.. It has a lot of features but it's simple for Pick developers to get at them. The pricing model is also very attractive for sites that want to get up and going quickly. $1000US for a developer license and end-user seats are $100 per year for license and support. This is very attractive for small end-user sites as well as large ASP service offerings or other WAN deployment. Over a period of years you might find Visage competitive in this area, but these days who knows how many sites or users we're going to have over a period of years? DesignBais was also written by a company who has an insurance package written in SB+, and there are strong similarities between SB+ and DesignBais. There are some basic tools in the package for helping with migration from SB+ (should anyone wish to do so), or integration with it for _adding_ a web browser interface. This is a strong selling point that seems to appeal to a lot of SB+ VARs. Speaking of which, you don't have to take any promotional commentary from me - at the Spectrum shows and elsewhere, DesignBais is getting rave commentary from people who see the presentations. I haven't seen this sort of enthusiasm for any product in the Pick industry for a few years now, including Visage, which is why I'm getting so closely involved with this product. As a developer who's familiar with most technologies out there, it doesn't matter if the software appeals to "my" sense of elegance - what's important is that the Pick VARs who see this are getting very excited about it. It's their/your opinion that counts. Since my target market is most VARs, if this is what they/you want then I'm all over it. If Visage were getting the same reaction from people I'd be all over that too - and maybe some day I will be, who knows. Now all of that said, just today I sent a note to my friend Ross Ferris at Stamina, because I want to make sure I'm making a fair comparison and giving all of the facts when someone asks me this very question. After I have a few exchanges with Ross and maybe a demo on the current release, I'll get back to you with a followup. I really don't want to get into a shooting match between products. What's important is that developers who are interested in GUI development should begin to modularize their applications, and from there they can port to almost any GUI technology out there, now or in the future. The bottom line is being able to sell more applications, and I'll be happy to help any VAR who's serious about doing that. The tactical approach (tools) is far less important than the overall strategy of making an application more attractive to help it sell. HTH, Tony [EMAIL PROTECTED] ------- u2-users mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe please visit http://listserver.u2ug.org/
