> It's just me or is there a contradiction in those two paragraphs?

Aside from my rather embarrassing typo...

> > "two complex"

My point I was trying to make (agree with) was; There is nothing
inherently wrong with additional components - where they are necessary
and appropriate. My initial look at the services API implies (to me)
that there is enough overlap if property requirements to make it so
that a single component is appropriate. The set of properties are
assigned to the component, and appropriate functions called to
initiate the service desired.

The interface would be relatively simple (I think) although, as you
suggest, the implementation would be rather more complicated. The
point being that there would be a lot of shared functionality, whether
you are doing a backup, restore or whatever. With this shared
functionality and common interface requirements, it seems to make
sense to present it in a single component.

For example: To take a backup and then restore to a new location...

with TIB_Services do begin
Database = <source database>
BackupFile = <destination>
DoBackup;
Database = <new database>
DoRestore;
DoValidate; // if you want.
end;

As I implied earlier; I could be wrong, but this has been my initial
impression.

Geoff Worboys
Telesis Computing