On Sunday 16 February 2003 20:59, you wrote:

Hi,

> Some specific questions would be:

I will answer the ones I can..

> 1) Why would one want to use dbExpress over
> IBX/IBO/FIBPlus (or vice versa)?

If you want your app to use more than one 'backend', not just FB. If you are
only developing for a single 'database' a native component set is always
better IMO.

> 3) Are there any practical reasons for choosing IBX
> over the (ostensibly superior) 3rd party FIBPlus or IBO
> components?

Price is the only one I can think of, and only then if you plan to stick to
current versions of FB.
>
> 4) If price is the factor and one does not wish to
> purchase IBO or FIBPlus, would it be advisable to
> use ZeosDB objects instead of dbExpress or IBX (both
> of which already come with Delphi at no extra cost)?

Well, there is no dbExpress driver for FB that comes with Delphi, AFAIK
(although there is one available from www.upscene.com), so the free options
are ZeosDB or IBX. I have not used Zeos, so can't comment, but I would not
recommend using IBX for any new development.

IBO has a 'trustware' licence, which basically means "you don't pay, till you
get paid", and I belive FIBPlus has something along the same lines. I would
personally go with one of those.

> 5) Related to #4 could be: how serious are any FB
> incompatibilities with IBX and the dbExpress Interbase
> driverL

The minimum, you won't be able to use any FB new features/datatypes/API's
etc, the maximum, they won't work at all.

Phil
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