At 02:50 AM 2/17/2004, Mick Arundell wrote:

>Hi Ann, Hi all
>I think it is best to be accurate.
>BDE came before Interbase in Borland terms.

I'm struggling to remember what BDE was called during its development ...
ISAPI? Anyway, after Borland's purchase of Ashton-Tate was final, Jim and
I went to Scott's Valley to gauge the possibilities of synergy. Phillipe
Kahn's office had the best collection of toys I've ever seen - and he owned
two really cool airplanes. Took about 38 seconds for all of us realize
that Jim's ego and Phillipe's couldn't co-exist in a single time
zone. Then we met the BDE architect ... he had a name ... which I forget
... Never in my life have I seen two objects repel each other so completely
as he and Jim did. And I've had some experience in that area...

>Borland acquired Interbase when they bought Ashton - Tate and Philip Kahn
>described that purchase as the worst deal ever (I paraphrase - his actual
>comments were stronger and I wish I'd kept the email :) )

Nobody made him take that deal. Ashton-Tate had a couple of really nice
buildings - the one in Torrance was OK, but their Walnut Creek office was
outstanding - green granite walls and polished brass elevators. I've
developed a theory about gorgeous office buildings and software
companies - did you ever see the courtyard of the Borland campus in the
early morning before the fog burnt off?

> >never thought much of InterBase - consider the design of BDE which could
> >have been created specifically to cripple InterBase and subsequent
> >interface attempts that serve to hide some of its most powerful

Now I'm not saying that one unpleasant discussion between Jim and the BDE
architect doomed InterBase at Borland. And I'm not saying that NIH is
unknown on the East Coast. But there are ways of achieving connectivity
that do not reduce every piece to the common subset. And they can be
implemented in less than a decade.

Regards,


Ann