Hi Ed,

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ed Malloy [mailto:edm@...]
> Sent: Monday, April 15, 2002 10:23 PM
> To: IBDI@yahoogroups.com
> Subject: Re: [IBDI] Re: About IBX and Firebird
>
>
> Helen,
>
> I'm glad to see that someone had the time to selectively review
> some of my comments.

Considering that Helen is a very busy woman, I think it was very
nice of her to make such comprehensive attempt to show you that
you might be wrong. The fact that there are precedents was supposed
to help you accepting that possibility.

BTW, it seems selectiveness was only quantitative since there are
other samples she could add.

However, the fact that the top experts on a field (be it Delphi or
Interbase/Firebird) tell something else does not seem to give you a
clue that you might be wrong. Do you think Helen was overoptimistic
about her chances of success?

Well, at least she tried.
=:o)

> However these comments have nothing to do with my comments here.
> My problems and the existence of bugs are two separate issues. In
> this group my comment had to do with the fact that
> a.) "buggy, buggy, buggy" intended to imply that the components
> were relased for sale without thorough testing, and

I wonder if that is really true:

- I happen to know some people that I respect which went with IBO
(commercial) after trying other (free) alternatives but I do
not know anyone doing the opposite. I always hear more bug
complains about IBX than about IBO;

- Your past posts suggest that the way you used the components
was "buggy, buggy, buggy" and there is no bug free software
that can resist bad use;

- IBO test process seems to be quite extensive, but there are
always pending bugs in any complex piece of software. I am
interested to know about any software you know about that is
an exception to this rule.

> b.) there were more components that I needed or was interested in using.

So, IBO should be customized just for your use. Forget about the
other guys.

> FWIW I have used Delphi for as long as Delphi has existed; prior
> to that I worked mostly in C. I have programmed in SQL for as
> long as I have been working with database. I would hazard a guess
> of 20 yrs.

That is no argument:
Experience time does never completely compensate the lack of
talent and the lack of RTFM.

> As for the Year issue:, of course the "so-called" experienced
> programmers were wrong, since ... t1."Year" ... FROM table t1
> does not work (and never did w/v6 afik) I presume that I could
> go into the the interabase system tables and remove the column,
> but since it isn't bothering anything I have left it there. I
> think that this is a nearly perfect example of some of the bad
> advice you can get here from the half-baked experts. As with any
> "free-lunch" you get what you pay for. I know that there is also
> very good advice available here, but one needs to be able to
> seperate the wheat from the chaff.

Claudio comprehensively proved you wrong in another reply.

> Helen, I do appreciate the great effort that you have undertaken
> to attack me.

She tried to help you stopping to shoot your own feet.

> It really doesn't bother me in the least.

Why do you take it as an attack then?
Helen just collected facts!

> If you
> had used your obviously great supply of free time to document
> just a small sample of the bug reports that exist in the same
> newsgroup you would have done a service to the original poster.

Any one that follows the Firebird and Delphi lists knows that
Helen obviously has no great supply of free time unless she has
a time machine and, additionally, is immortal.

(Is this your big secret Helen???)

> Please note that in no way do I equate bug reports with an
> inferior product. I simply mean that, for me, the code was
> released to quickly

I am glad you used that "for me" bit. And I also hope that
you keep remembering that neither IBO nor the other products
mentioned in this list are custom made for you.

> I do enljoy the way 6 or 7 of the people on this newsgroup
> pull together when you feel threatened.

I did not notice you were a threat.

> Let me try and make it
> clear: I was never and am NOT denigrating the IBO effort, I
> simply was and AM saying that is that IBO was not for me, and may
> not be for other people either.

You _were_ denigrating. You said it was "buggy, buggy, buggy".

Considering that you are (were?) an Infopower user, that could
even mean "buggier than Infopower" - which is a quite terrible
insult.

> ed malloy

Have fun,
Paulo