> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jason Wharton [mailto:jwharton@...]

>
> Perhaps I shouldn't ask but... Is there anyone else out
> there who feels the
> same as Hans or is he being overly critical?

I have a 24x7 app running since December 2000 which uses IBO.
In addition to that, about 5 to 30 users are connected to the
same database with a client app using IBO.

I have never had any stability concerns, at least not IBO-related
ones *g*.

So I did not experience any of the problems Hans mentioned.
In all this time, I found one bug, I told Jason and it was fixed
in the next subrelease. But thinking of the numerous bugs in other
software I use which have not been fixed for year, I must say that
I do not consider this one bug to be negative.

So I have stability, speed and good support - and this is also reflected
by the users who like my app.

For me, there is no reason to wait for IBO v4 because of bugs which were
not fixed in v3. I just look forward to see the new features.

Perhaps one small thing I could suggest to you, Jason, to keep developers
like Hans from thinking that IBO is buggy and unstable: perhaps you should
put a big emphasis (on your website and in your ftp directory) on the last
stable release. A bit like the linux kernel developers do. Of course, IBO
is always work in progress, but as a novice (one year ago), I had my
diffculties
to distinguish different versions of IBO.
Novices tend to try and use always the newest version - and this is not
always
the right thing, because there are test versions etc. In addition to that,
some
people might have problems with upgrading to a new version, problems using
patches
etc. If you have already done it, it's very easy, but there are a lot of
things
you can mix up if you do not know how to do it.
If you want to use a patch, but you don't do it properly, you _will_
experience
problems.

So I would suggest that it should be recommended and made easy for newbies
to get the
latest stable, rock solid release of IBO and they should be prevented from
playing
with patches and test versions.
As I said: it could be a bit like the linux kernel developers say: we do not
recommend
that you use kernel xy. You should rather use kernel yx.
Although kernel xy may already be a stable and mature product, everybody
uses yx, which
is rock solid _and_ tested for a longer time by a large number of users.

Just my $0.02 ...

But the general conclusion must be that if you use IBO properly, you will be
satisfied
with its stability and the performance of your app.
For novices, it is not always a piece of cake to use IBO properly, but it is
the same
with other complex products.

IMHO, IBO is the most stable and advanced tool to develop apps accessing the
Interbase
server.


Christian