Dear Helen,

Wednesday, February 26, 2003, 2:20:19 PM, you wrote:

>>You could check FIB plus. It also costs money (I believe about 200 US$), but
>>is based on FIB, just like IBX. The switch from IBX to FIB plus will
>>probably not be so hard to do. I think most will work, only in FIB plus some
>>common problems are solved (i.e. use of 2 transactions in the dataset, so
>>your data remains visible after an update). The makers are supporting both
>>Interbase and Firebird. You could download a demo at www.devrace.com

HB> The equivalent package in IBO is $149.50 (data access components for use
HB> with TDatasource and TDatasource-compatible controls).
With all my respect, Helen, "the equivalent package in IBO" is not
equivalent to FIBPlus. It is not very precise to compare them as
equal component sets :)

FIBPlus is based on a standard TDataSet approach and we have been
developing it within these bounds. So all powerful features of FIBPlus
are included in the package. And this set of features is big enough,
believe me :).

Kylix support, special design-time experts (SQLNavigator, for
example), correct work of components in case of the database
connection loss, implicit and explicit transaction control, unique capability
of use of two separate transactions in TpFIBDataSet, very fast local sorting
and local filtering, local BLOB-filters, unique options for
master-detail mechanism, macroses in TpFIBDataSet (SELECT
@FIELD_NAME FROM @TABLE_NAME), client-side triggers components, getting detail
queries statistics and increasing application performance,
features for reducing net-traffic on low-speed channels, etc.

I can enumerate FIBPlus features for a long time :).

HB> IBO isn't one set of components, it is two. The "other" one <g> has about
HB> 60 data-aware controls as well and it's not an FIBPlus or IBX equivalent.
Yes, it is true. But really, most users who came to InterBase
from Delphi 3-7 prefer to use a lot of powerful third-party visual
components and report generators. As FIBPlus and IBX are
compatible with all of them, users are happy :). I'm not sure that
data-aware IBO controls are more powerful than DevExpress or
InfoPower. They were absolutely necessary for Delphi 2, but after
Delphi 3 we all have a capability to use direct InterBase/Firebird
connection with standard and third-party visual libraries.

HB> Also, though IBO isn't free, you don't have to start paying to use it until
HB> you start to make money from it. When you do pay, you get full source.

Yes. And this is the same with others commercial products, for example,
with FIBPlus. You have evaluation version, it is fully functional
and you can develop any kind of applications. And when you have a
customer for your application, you register FIBPlus and get all
sources. But we simply do not call it trustware.

--
Sincerely yours,
Serg

Devrace - software for developers!
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