On 23 Feb 2001, at 1:12, Magnus Johansson wrote:

To: <IBObjects@yahoogroups.com>
From: "Magnus Johansson" <trans-x@...>
Date sent: Fri, 23 Feb 2001 01:12:13 +0100
Send reply to: IBObjects@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [IBO] Reporting Tools

I have used Crystal since the version that came with VB 2.0 so I feel
I can comment on it, good or bad.

> Time to time this question comes up and always FastReport and
> ReportBuilder comes up. I have used Crystal Reports a couple of years
> now (since ver 3.5 or something) and I like it very much, soon it's
> time for me (as new to IBObjects and IB) to start digging in on
> reports. My thoughts so far at the moment is to go for easysofts ODBC
> and Crystal. I hesitate a little because there is not many that
> mention Crystal Reports in this community, are there any of you that
> can share any knowledge about Crystal Reports vs other reporting
> tools?

Crystal reports is really good at some things, and really bad at
others, it requires that the developer and DBA know each other really
well, because a sensible data design, and the linear format Crystal
wants are usually different. I once created a report using over 150
formulas, because of the data formatting issue.

>
> I don't like all dll's that comes with Crystal Reports but thats
> something one have to take I guess because I like it a lot!
>

That is another thing, it seems that every function has it's own DLL,
however that means the memory footprint is absolutely huge, and you
need a 800lb Gorilla like BDE or JET to access the data, and that
makes it even worse. My preferance is to use Crystal for adhoc
reporting, but not for embedded printing in a commercial application.
Having said that, I have yet to see any RAD reporting tool, that
works well when embedded in an applcation.




Paul Schmidt,
Tricat Technologies
Email: paul@...
Website: www.tricattechnologies.com