I have enough work on at the moment, so some futher info would help me
contribute to this debate. Borland has done me no favours, so my open
hostility to them is based on the fact that they take my money but do
not deliver the goods. There are still bugs in Builder 5 that were
identified in Builder 4 we just live with them, and work round them. So
perhaps their engineers could spend time fixing products that they have
had money for already! Enough of the Rants.

> Essential things for Borland to do:
> Publicly acknowledge the Firebird tree and commit to synchronize with it.

I assume that the Borland tree is not as openly accessable as Firebird?
and that to make it as accessable is not an option. I have only bothered
with Firebird to date because of the attitude of Borland towards me.
But I can give a little on one side in exchange for better service.

> Engineers work freely with Firebird developers as development front line.

Once one base is agreed Firebird or Borland, this should automatically
follow. IF we give up Firebird, more open cooperation is essential.

> Certified builds subset from the Firebird tree. (e.g. Prevent a fork)

I have standardised on that, but if the other fork can be opened up?

> Release their bug lists and maintain them in public view.

YES YES YES a single bug list is probably more important that a single
source, but the two go hand in hand.

> Non-essential things we would like Borland to do:
> Release the documentation for IB6.

I think that the alternative documentation is starting to pad out, but
we need the 'Specification' to see what are bugs and what are wish list
items.

> End the blag campaigns against all community members.

Here Here

> Essential things for the community to do:
> Give due respect to Borland as the principle custodian of the sources.

Provided that they accept the spirit of open source. Yes.

> Give a certain amount of deference to engineers such as Charlie Caro.

Give and take - we are using the product in the field, and can provide
real input. It would be nice for 'developers' to recognise that.

> Give B. engineers commit rights in Firebird tree.

Everybody should have equal access to THE tree

> Things that would be nice if the community did:
> Work the hardest on bugs that Borland places priority upon.

Once they actually tell us where they are. Borland ( and Microsoft )
have great problems admitting to any problems in their products, but at
least Borland don't go out and say "You must use Builder 5 because
Builder 4 is crap".

> Become Borland evangelists and apologists.

It's the best of two evils. I may not like the way they deal with me as
a customer, but I am not about to stop using Builder 5 as my development
platform. It's my whole livelyhood!


Lester Caine
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L.S.Caine Electronic Services
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