Hi Tim,

I know its an odd subject but yesterday someone asked me "How big is elevate software and is the continuity guaranteed ?" In some way i can
understand his question. Especially for large software projects and relying on a third party database engine, there can be concerns about support and
future development of the database engine. As far as i know only Tim and his wife are running the company. What will happen if something happens to
Tim (long illness for example). Is there a backup plan ? Other developers with the knowledge to continue the development of DBISAM and ElevateDB ?

I know these are weird thoughts so i hope you don't mind.

Rony,

> I know its an odd subject but yesterday someone asked me "How big is
> elevate software and is the continuity guaranteed ?" In some way i
> can understand his question. Especially for large software projects
> and relying on a third party database engine, there can be concerns
> about support and future development of the database engine.

Look at TurboPower... The size of the organization does not guarantee
any type of continuity. The same could be said about any one of us
"small houses". If you are a small one-man shop (not saying you are but
many of us here are), what about your projects?

Then there are those companies which don't go under but who deprecate
their products, Borland's BDE is a perfect example. How many developers
in the early days of Delphi used the BDE and had to search for
alternatives?

Other large organizations which have bit the dust, just to name a few:
Enron, PanAm, TWA ... I think you get the picture. Nothing in life is
forever. Instead, let's wish Tim good health and a long and prosperous
life.

Just my 2 cents worth.

--
Regards,
Jan Ferguson


Rony Gellaerts wrote:

> Hi Tim,
>
> I know its an odd subject but yesterday someone asked me "How big is
> elevate software and is the continuity guaranteed ?" In some way i
> can understand his question. Especially for large software projects
> and relying on a third party database engine, there can be concerns
> about support and future development of the database engine. As far
> as i know only Tim and his wife are running the company. What will
> happen if something happens to Tim (long illness for example). Is
> there a backup plan ? Other developers with the knowledge to continue
> the development of DBISAM and ElevateDB ?
>
> I know these are weird thoughts so i hope you don't mind.

Rony

Rony,

> Is there a backup plan ? Other developers with the knowledge to continue
> the development of DBISAM and ElevateDB ?

The 'backup plan' is that DBISAM ships with 100% source code. Only a
vanishingly small percentage of customers buy the source code version
because they actually want to customise the core DBISAM engine or fix
bugs themselves.

The core point of shipping the 'with source' version (starting with
V2.x) was to allow customers to fix things in the event that ElevateSoft
were unable or unwilling to do so. Even without any 'disasters' this can
happen - I don't imagine Elevate will be porting DBISAM V2.x to D2006 -
any customer with the source code version can do so themselves however.

Eryk

Rony,

<< I know its an odd subject but yesterday someone asked me "How big is
elevate software and is the continuity guaranteed ?" In some way i can
understand his question. Especially for large software projects and relying
on a third party database engine, there can be concerns about support and
future development of the database engine. As far as i know only Tim and his
wife are running the company. What will happen if something happens to Tim
(long illness for example). Is there a backup plan ? Other developers with
the knowledge to continue the development of DBISAM and ElevateDB ? >>

We are properly insured so that in the case of either disability for death,
DBISAM and ElevateDB will have the resources to continue on without me.  One
the major ideas behind ElevateDB is that it is written with the goal of
making it very easy for other non-Tim developers to be able to look at the
source code and be able to easily make modifications.  I'd like to take a
break at some point and let others do some of the development.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

"Tim Young [Elevate Software]" <timyoung@elevatesoft.com> wrote in message
news:0B218621-5643-4238-87CC-D4C868E36660@news.elevatesoft.com...
> One the major ideas behind ElevateDB is that it is written with the goal
> of making it very easy for other non-Tim developers to be able to look at
> the source code and be able to easily make modifications.  I'd like to
> take a break at some point and let others do some of the development.
>

Yep the source files are tiny it will only take you until you die to get
upto speed
17/01/2006  22:14            59,305 dbisamcn.pas
17/01/2006  22:14            37,644 dbisamcr.pas
17/01/2006  22:14             7,190 dbisamct.pas
17/01/2006  22:14             2,765 dbisamdb.pas
17/01/2006  22:14         1,624,491 dbisamen.pas
17/01/2006  22:14           682,294 dbisamlb.pas
17/01/2006  22:14            21,466 dbisammm.pas
17/01/2006  22:14             2,385 dbisampw.pas
17/01/2006  22:14            15,379 dbisamql.pas
17/01/2006  22:14            36,171 dbisamrg.pas
17/01/2006  22:14           569,395 dbisamsq.pas
17/01/2006  22:14            15,570 dbisamst.pas
17/01/2006  22:14           404,965 dbisamsv.pas
17/01/2006  22:14           526,230 dbisamtb.pas
17/01/2006  22:14             6,430 zlibcomp.pas
17/01/2006  22:14           164,217 zlibpas.pas

Rita

Rita,

<< Yep the source files are tiny it will only take you until you die to get
upto speed >>

Actually, ElevateDB has been redesigned and the majority of the units are
50k or less.  There are many more units than with DBISAM, however.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com

I'd be more worried about whether Delphi will be around in the distance
future, rather than DBISam.  

Nothing with computers is certain, and wierd things are happening. For
instance, McDonalds is now serving healthy food! Who knows what's next.
Macintosh may take dominance in the marketplace.

Seriously though - I feel a lot more comfortable now, with communities such
as sourceforge. When Turbopower closed up, it was good to see them release
their source code to sourceforge.

Just my 2c worth...

Adam.

Rony Gellaerts wrote:

> Hi Tim,
>
> I know its an odd subject but yesterday someone asked me "How big is elevate
> software and is the continuity guaranteed ?" In some way i can understand
> his question. Especially for large software projects and relying on a third
> party database engine, there can be concerns about support and future
> development of the database engine. As far as i know only Tim and his wife
> are running the company. What will happen if something happens to Tim (long
> illness for example). Is there a backup plan ? Other developers with the
> knowledge to continue the development of DBISAM and ElevateDB ?
>
> I know these are weird thoughts so i hope you don't mind.

Very often a single developer is much better for you than a team of hundreds
of people. And keep in mind: you get the source and are part of a good sized
community. Go for it if you like it, if you're a bit worried edsign your app
in a way that you can replace it if necessary (not that i think you ever need
to)

--

Hannes Danzl
Newsgroup archive at http://www.tamaracka.com/search.htm

I know the community is very good...and thank you all for the comments...


Maybe the team of NexusDB can be part of the backup plan )))))))))))))
</G>

Rony Gellaerts


"Hannes Danzl[NDD]" <hannes@nexusdb.dbnexus.com> wrote:

Very often a single developer is much better for you than a team of hundreds
of people. And keep in mind: you get the source and are part of a good sized
community. Go for it if you like it, if you're a bit worried edsign your app
in a way that you can replace it if necessary (not that i think you ever need
to)

--

Hannes Danzl
Newsgroup archive at http://www.tamaracka.com/search.htm

Rony,

<<
Maybe the team of NexusDB can be part of the backup plan )))))))))))))
</G> >>

If something happened to me, Sam (my wife) knows that NexusDB is exactly
where I would want DBISAM and its customers to end up.  It's not only the
best for everyone involved, it's also the place where I know that all of our
customers would be taken care of in a manner that I would approve of.

--
Tim Young
Elevate Software
www.elevatesoft.com