Helen,


I did not realize there was that much to the IB_* components, and will
definitely use them on future projects. However, I have an enormous
conversion in front of me and I am only half way through it. For the sake of
simplicity, I am forced into using the TIBO* components (for now) or this
conversion will never get done.

When I started the task of converting this app over to IB, I had no idea it
would be so involved. The C/S mindset is such a drastic change from the
TTable way of thinking that I actually had to setup a server running IB next
to my desk. I leave the performance monitor running at all times just to
ensure that what I though was C/S friendly, actually is. I can't tell you
how much this has helped.

This app has roughly 300 forms, 50 datamodules and over a 1000 TTable
components. Hopefully by the time I am finished, I will have gained enough
IB & IBO experience to help out others struggling through the same issues.
Maybe someday even reach the level of a Helen or a Jason :))

I would also like to thank you and everyone else on this list that has taken
the time out of there busy schedules to help out others that are not so
knowledgeable. Without your help, I am sure this conversion would have taken
double the amount of time and would have resulted in a sub-standard product.
It's great to catch the mistakes before I make them.

Chris Landowski
Dynamic Software Solutions

----- Original Message -----
From: "Helen Borrie" <helebor@...>
To: <IBObjects@egroups.com>
Sent: Friday, January 05, 2001 9:58 PM
Subject: Re: [IBO] TDataSet vs. Native


>
> More additions to using the native comps...
>
> IN PARTICULAR, the controls encapsulate every last thing you need to use
> the smart searching, incremental search, etc., with not a scrap of code to
> write. To me this is the ESSENCE of a fast, effective, consistent,
> maintainable UI for client/server work.
>
> Add to this things like set-sensitivity in searches and locates (the
> controls automatically know where to go within a filtered set) and the
> potential that is in the TIB_Datasource for developing custom controls...
>
> Notwithstanding the TIBO* components take advantage of a great deal of the
> server-centric architecture of TIB_*, I perceive two really quite distinct
> connectivity options in the two series. To a considerable degree, TIBO*
> panders to the "fat client" habit that BDE programmers pick up, become
> dependent upon and carry as baggage. That can be a useful thing because
it
> helps to ease the mental transition from file-server to client/server.
But
> it also perpetuates the native Delphi approach of making the data access
> classes the slaves of the GUI.
>
> It's an approach that DOES leave the route open to scaling to a different
> database; but it's not long before you start seeing needs that the fat
> client VCL can't meet without a LOT of manual code, i.e. more fat. Look
at
> some of the monstrous data-handling monoliths we have all had to write
> during our time in TDataset country. It's where RAD turns on itself and
> makes hard work out of something that a different class ancestry would
have
> avoided altogether.
>
> The Delphi VCL is heavily focused on the GUI - its database functionality
> is all about bringing data processing right up to the surface of the
> GUI. Woll-2-Woll, Orpheus and the like have done very well out of this,
> producing better and better GUI masters for the TDataset slaves and
forcing
> more and more data-layer functionality into the UI layer.
>
> That's why TIB_* really makes you rethink your perception of C/s
> programming and opens doors you didn't know were there in developing
> object-oriented interfaces for relational data structures.
>
> Native IBO is about a GUI that takes care of just what the client user
> needs and hands everything else over to the data access classes and thence
> to the server. The data access classes in this architecture are in
> charge. Newcomers often complain about all the "richness" in native IBO
> until they finally get hold of that fundamental difference. After that,
> the IBO users allow no upper limit. Requirements they couldn't have
> conceived of six months before keep Jason constantly running uphill with
> the sub-release levels incrementing daily, sometimes! <g>