> Helen,
>
> You mistook me - it was just an ironic comment on the changing

times.

Thank you. When people with your reputation make comments like this,
it scares me. I have been doing database programming for about 15
years now and it's not very easy finding people to look up to.

> Since IB actually went OS in July, the overwhelming need for

a "basics" book for IB has been everywhere. The collapse of the ISC
spinoff caused sponsorship prospects for the big InterBase
Developer's Handbook to evaporate overnight. I stopped work and the
translator teams went "on hold". I outlined a less
ambitious "newbie" book which was less scary for publishers.

I guess a newbie book would be helpful for people who do not like
reading the manuals. I found the IB manuals to be outdated but very
effective. If you ever decide to write more of a hardcore IB users
handbook (even if it's a PDF file), please let me know. I cannot seem
to find one anywhere. Just click on the Book Store icon at
InterBase2000.com, not a single book geared towards InterBase.

> (Just reflect on what the world would be like today if OS/2 had

captured the market instead of Windows...)

I remember those days well and could not agree with you more.

> Maybe this is an extreme, or even exceptional, example of the

effectiveness of Firebird's "marketing strategy". Or not. Really,
the only people who really know of its existence are the members of
the existing InterBase community. We are still seeing newbie
questions coming through to the lists pertaining to the sourcecode
downloaded from the Inprise CVS tree which has not changed since
release day (other than to fix a couple of errors in the Windows
installation); and there are people still wanting to download the
buggy binaries from the Borland site.

To be totally honest with you, it also took me a while to figure out
what Firebird was. The first place a newbie stumbles onto is the news
groups and you really do not see much mention of it there. Once you
do hear about Firebird, you begin to wonder if you should stick with
the trusted Borland name or go with someone you never heard of. The
IB veterans like yourself, already know who the key players are in
the IB community and Firebird is a natural choice. However, to a
newbie, this appears to be a risky decision. The whole problem with
Firebird is that newbies do not know the backgrounds of the people
involved, or the fact that these same people know more about
InterBase then Borland does. If you want to get the word out to
newbies and even not so newbies, post an occasional spam to the
newsgroups at mers. Not that I promote spam mind you, but it is an IB
related topic that I am sure users would have an interest in if only
they knew more about it. Besides, there are plenty of spam posting
related to various IB tools appearing there on almost a daily basis.

> The year 2000 was one of forked paths and crushing disappointments,

but (New Year blues aside) I haven't reneged yet...I'm still looking
for ways to achieve it.

Publishers are driven by dollar signs and once IB gathers more of a
following, they would be foolish not to call you begging for a book.
The fact that IBO sales are picking up and Jason is ready to hire a
staff, tells me that this should not be to far down the road.

> I'm constantly inspired by people like Jason, Ann Harrison, Mark

O'Donohue and the other source gurus in Firebird, yourself, Geoff
Worboys, Claudio Valderrama and the scores of others who share the
desire to get InterBase "out there" and realizing its potential.

InterBase will be out there, like it or not. It's free and that's a
real hard price to turn down. By the time I finish my Paradox to IB
Conversion, IB will be installed in over 100 government offices
across Wisconsin and then we will start some heavy marketing across
the country. Our current BDE/Paradox version blows away all
competitors and new customers are begging to get on the data
conversion waiting list. A C/S version of this app would keep us way
ahead of the compition for long time to come.

Chris Landowski
Dynamic Software Solutions