Can anybody give advice, if it is reasonable to extend the expiring subscription or leave it as it is? - As the developer leaves it as it is, apparently.

The Roadmap page speaks a clear language....  3.02 no checkmarks, but 3.02 was released last year!

Hidden background knowledge is welcome.

Rain wrote:

> Can anybody give advice, if it is reasonable to extend the expiring subscription or leave it as it is?
>- As the developer leaves it as it is, apparently.

First, I will say I have no insider knowlegdge.

I will say, I have received support from EWB just a week ago, an Email was returned within 24 hours of my request and directly answered my question in detail.  That's much faster and more detail than Embarcadero whose license costs me three or four times as much, and whose product updates rarely affect my work.
 
Also, the day you let your subscription end, you will lose the prospect of support when you need it.

I believe you also lose the ability to post to this Bulletin Board, so your ability to request help from others goes down too.

People not renewing their subscriptions will make this a self-fulfilling decline in EWB.  If they lose customers they cannot afford to support the product, and it will go the way of the dodo bird.

I'm no legal expert, and the Elevate contract seems quite reasonable in its terms and conditions, but I'd say morally I feel an obligation to support the developer if I continue to use the product for development.  Elevate never claimed to be a Free and Open Source company, so I respect that condition that I pay.  So I wouldn't continue using it if I were to not renew - that's not happening.


> The Roadmap page speaks a clear language....  3.02 no checkmarks, but 3.02 was released last year!

3.02b8 is the eighth release of 3.02.  The seven earlier releases of 3.02 needed fixes.

I think I've found another bug, and will report it to Tim as soon as I can make a simple example, but the feature set that is there is quite reliable at this point.  What a relief.

I appreciate that EWB doesn't make many significant changes.  In fact, 3.x which was a huge update from 2.x, is surprisingly compatible with most things and didn't require huge rewrites.  That's good for us developers.  However,  It wasn't until late in 3.02's release cycle that I was comfortable moving my major apps to it.  That's probably a year after 3.x was initially released.  So I'm conservative in that regard.

So count me as mostly happy.

Sure I have a wish list of things I'd love to see, but stability is more important to me than wiz bang controls.  Those things I can write myself if I really need them, but I cannot improve the stability of the compiler or the code it generates.


Erick
EWB Programming Books and Component Library
http://www.erickengelke.com

Rain wrote:

> Can anybody give advice, if it is reasonable to extend the expiring subscription or leave it as it is?
>- As the developer leaves it as it is, apparently.

First, I will say I have no insider knowlegdge.

I will say, I have received support from EWB just a week ago, an Email was returned within 24 hours of my request and directly answered my question in detail.  That's much faster and more detail than Embarcadero whose license costs me three or four times as much, and whose product updates rarely affect my work.
 
Also, the day you let your subscription end, you will lose the prospect of support when you need it.

I believe you also lose the ability to post to this Bulletin Board, so your ability to request help from others goes down too.

People not renewing their subscriptions will make this a self-fulfilling decline in EWB.  If they lose customers they cannot afford to support the product, and it will go the way of the dodo bird.

I'm no legal expert, and the Elevate contract seems quite reasonable in its terms and conditions, but I'd say morally I feel an obligation to support the developer if I continue to use the product for development.  Elevate never claimed to be a Free and Open Source company, so I respect that condition that I pay.  So I wouldn't continue using it if I were to not renew - that's not happening.


> The Roadmap page speaks a clear language....  3.02 no checkmarks, but 3.02 was released last year!

3.02b8 is the eighth release of 3.02.  The seven earlier releases of 3.02 needed fixes.

I think I've found another bug, and will report it to Tim as soon as I can make a simple example, but the feature set that is there is quite reliable at this point.  What a relief.

I appreciate that EWB doesn't make many significant changes.  In fact, 3.x which was a huge update from 2.x, is surprisingly compatible with most things and didn't require huge rewrites.  That's good for us developers.  However,  It wasn't until late in 3.02's release cycle that I was comfortable moving my major apps to it.  That's probably a year after 3.x was initially released.  So I'm conservative in that regard.

So count me as mostly happy.

Sure I have a wish list of things I'd love to see, but stability is more important to me than wiz bang controls.  Those things I can write myself if I really need them, but I cannot improve the stability of the compiler or the code it generates.


Erick
EWB Programming Books and Component Library
http://www.erickengelke.com

Thanks Erick, those are absolutely valid points, with the support of independent developers and so on.

Another self fulfilling prophecy is, banning expired subscription users from posting in the board, this leaves the impression of a not very busy bulletin board and hence: product.

The high upgrade fees from Embarcadero let me switch to Lazarus / CodeTyphon a while ago, because I use it only occasionally privately, or for my employer and don't get any compensation for my 'private investments', because it's my fault when I don't always use hyped mainstream-technology, like Python for example, which I also use.

I don't mind investing in future, if there is a future. The Forum of pilotlogic is much busier, although about the same niche language Pascal, and the developers are much more committed, while its free and open source. So I expect a similar committment from the vendor of a fully commercial software like EWB, to reduce the feeling of risk, using such a niche product.

I have only time until 4.4.2023 exchanging thoughts here with you valuable and helpful souls, so no wondering if I get silenced after my expulsion from the board, because of my wrong prioritisation spending my rare money.

Hi,

I've been working with EWB since v1. Every version (1 > 2 > 3) has always brought significant change and improvements. Maintenance releases (and sometimes added features) were always a comfort between major releases. Having the subscription was my safeguard, support (email, forums) has always been great, and I was happy to consider it part of the cost of using this wonderful toolset.

From my experience, best bang for my dollar in development tools, easily! Obviously, it depends on the needs of individuals.

I do use open-source tools as well, but, like all software, they have their problems, and their delays, and bugs, so there are always hidden (time) costs with those.

Best of luck in your decision going forward!



Rain wrote:

Thanks Erick, those are absolutely valid points, with the support of independent developers and so on.

Another self fulfilling prophecy is, banning expired subscription users from posting in the board, this leaves the impression of a not very busy bulletin board and hence: product.

The high upgrade fees from Embarcadero let me switch to Lazarus / CodeTyphon a while ago, because I use it only occasionally privately, or for my employer and don't get any compensation for my 'private investments', because it's my fault when I don't always use hyped mainstream-technology, like Python for example, which I also use.

I don't mind investing in future, if there is a future. The Forum of pilotlogic is much busier, although about the same niche language Pascal, and the developers are much more committed, while its free and open source. So I expect a similar committment from the vendor of a fully commercial software like EWB, to reduce the feeling of risk, using such a niche product.

I have only time until 4.4.2023 exchanging thoughts here with you valuable and helpful souls, so no wondering if I get silenced after my expulsion from the board, because of my wrong prioritisation spending my rare money.
Bruno Larochelle
Logiciels BitWise Software