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23 years ago when I started my software business, my competitors asked potential clients "What happens if he dies tomorrow ?". Well the competitors are all gone and I'm still in business.

My point is simple, and I do not represent Antonio on this. If the tool is valuable to you today, and it works, then buy it and use it. If you worry about what will happen tomorrow you will miss the benefit of what exists today !

I develop with xHarbour / Fivewin. Today I provide my clients with a software solution. Hundreds of my clients still use the old Clipper DOS version of my software. Do any of them care about the tools I use, or if they have a "future " ? Not at all. They only care if I provide them with the solution that runs their business today !

Tim

Tim,

Don't care about this person posts. He is just a troll that does not reveals his name or true email and just want to be picky all the time. It is not the first msg that we have to delete from him.

Antonio,

That person may be a troll, but lots of people are curious about the future of products they use. My point is that they should really focus on today. No one knows what tomorrow will bring. I've worked in one vertical market for 24 + years ( since dbase II runtime for CP/M ) and I've seen a lot of competitors come and go. I've also seen companies promise features in their software that they never deliver.

My point is simple. Evaluate the product as it exists RIGHT NOW, and if it provides the solution you need today, that is the only point that matters.

Obviously, many people have found that Five Win works for them in developing the applications their clients need today. No one knows what those needs will be in the future, but we can certainly assume that as the needs are presented, solutions may well be found with our existing tools ( Five Win, xHarbour/Harbour, and others ) as they are enhanced over time.

Borland announced they were uniting their programs into a studio ( Delphi, C++ Builder, etc ) and then when it came time to ship, they couldn't get the C++ Builder to work properly. The idea was great, but the reality wasn't realized. Apparently they hadn't cleaned up old bugs in Delphi either, so it will be awhile before that software can be used for applications reliably.

Anyway, my point is that the product works for us today and we don't need to worry about the future !

Heck the majority of my clients are still running the old Clipper DOS application, and I released the windows version 6 years ago ...

Tim

Tim,

I fully agree with you

Tim you have mentioned Borland just in time. And what should programmers wrinting on Borland C++ Builder do? Should they bother about their future and the future of the Borland C++ Builder?

Vladimir,

According to Borland explanations, those products will be acquired by another company that will continue their development.

And where is this company? By the way is this company CA? Or Borland is searching another killer?

Vladimir,

Well, something similar happened with Visual dBase before. Where is Visual dBase these days ? On the other hand, Delphi and C++ builders have a much wider users base, will this make a difference ? Time will tell

Just my 2 cents on Borland's IDE potential buyer .. Bill Gates. If I recall he just bought the 'open source' OfficeOffice.org .. His explaination .. Saying he "was sick and tired of open-source eating away at his profits,"

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/04/01/1439207

Rick Lipkin

Rick,

It was an April 1st joke. An open source project can't be bought

In fact can be bought! For example what about xHarbour "professional" or some releases of Linux published, for example, by Red Hat? If you have enough capital you can buy a project and turn buissness such away that you program will reduce to zero all efforts of open source project!

Vladimir,

You can create a company to deliver an open source product, and sell added value and/or services. But the product remains open source and free cause GPL licence.

well ... now I feel really stupid about the April fools thing .. took that one 'hook. line and sinker'

Anyway .. consenses here is that Microsoft will prob crush the competative IDE commercial business .. Borland just can't stay profitable in that market.

Rick Lipkin

I ordered the "pre-release" before I did my research. It was Borland's 2006 product. When I got the letter from Borland that they couldn't accomplish the integration "on time" of the C++ Builder I started doing a lot of research, and then cancelled my order for the new studio product.

What I learned was that Delphi 5 was "as good as it gets" and all later releases, especially the 2005 version, were full of problems that made them unuseable for production. Apparently many of the major concerns were not addressed in the 2006 version, so people were putting upgrades on hold.

Then I found out Builder 6 was "as good as it gets" and since there were problems integrating it into the suite, people wondered if it would happen successfully even in the future.

The problem is that Borland started selling the product before it was finished or released ...

Anyway, I have Delphi 5 and C++ Builder 6, and aparently money won't buy anything better that works ....

Of course, my needs are met with xHarbour and FWH ...

Tim

Tim

Like YOU !! I prefer xHarbour and FiveWin .. not much of and IDE person here .. too complecated for me.

Just give me a good editor and a Make file .. I will be happy.

Rick Lipkin