My EWB subscription is up for renewal next month and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

It's been almost 2 years since the last update (not counting a couple of bug fixes that were possibly only affecting one user - they weren't affecting me at least).

With the increasing cost of living in Australia that seems to know no bounds, high interest rates on mortgage rates that are killing us, and a downturn in sales and side hustles, we're doing a widespread cutting of expenditure across the board.

As much as I really want to support Tim, with nothing to show for it over the last couple of years, it makes me wonder if I should renew again for a 3rd year of possibly no new versions.  

It doesn't seem to make any difference in terms of releases.  I suspect that if I renew, I will be asking myself the same question again this time next year.

I understand if you're rolling in money then it's probably not an issue, but how do others feel?

= Steve

Steve Gill wrote:

>My EWB subscription is up for renewal next month and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.
>
>It's been almost 2 years since the last update (not counting a couple of bug fixes that were possibly only
>affecting one user - they weren't affecting me at least).

The bug fixes were a huge deal for me.   So I have a different perspective.

Posting access to the forums disappears with your license expiration too.


> With the increasing cost of living in Australia that seems to know no bounds, high interest rates on
> mortgage rates that are killing us, and a downturn in sales and side hustles, we're doing a widespread
> cutting of expenditure across the board.

All of those are world-wide: inflation, interest, supply chains, etc.  The US economy is outperforming everyone else, I believe, but you wouldn't think it from their press.    You'd be hard pressed to find someone comfortable anywhere in the world these days.

> As much as I really want to support Tim, with nothing to show for it over the last couple of years,
> it makes me wonder if I should renew again for a 3rd year of possibly no new versions.  

I cannot argue with that.   But at a fraction of what I pay for Rad studio licensing where I've rarely benefitted from new developments and get needlessly nagged every time I upgrade hardware, I'm going to keep paying for EWB as long as I use it.   Honestly, most mere libraries cost more per year.   

The latest few releases have had stubs of some new work, but they were incomplete at this point, such as a new editor.  But spekaing from experience, that's really hard to do.   I think most of the low-lying fruit regarding components are already there, a good HTML editor is very time-consuming, and is frought with frequent requests from others to add things and complexity accomplishing it - which has lead to the dying off many of the open source ones.

> I understand if you're rolling in money then it's probably not an issue, but how do others feel?

Not money rolling here.  

We all have to make hard choices these days.   Unfortunately they could snowball!

I would feel better if there were occasional posts from the Youngs and signs of progress.  It would be a shame for this to die off.  BTW, I have no inside knowledge or interest except as a paying client, these are just my observations.

Erick
EWB Programming Books and Nice Component Library
See my EWB BLOG posts, at:
http://www.erickengelke.com

<< erickengelke wrote:

I would feel better if there were occasional posts from the Youngs and signs of progress.  It would be a shame for this to die off.  BTW, I have no inside knowledge or interest except as a paying client, these are just my observations. >>

Yes!! That's my one big concern. Not knowing what's going on and being left in the dark.

The occasional "State of the Nation" post would make me feel a whole lot better.  Letting us know that things are progressing would be a major reassurance that the project is still alive. Complete radio silence is not a good sign and is very worrying.

Judging by the lack of posts on this forum, my guess is other customers are either waiting to see what happens, or they've lost interest and moved on.

I would be happy to renew if I knew that EWB was still being developed, even if it's taking longer than anticipated.

= Steve

Just a few comments that I hope are relevant.
1. Post Covid - economies have taken quite a hit, and small companies in particular will be under financial stress - I get that. There'll be ongoing need to cut costs until the economic situation improves.

2. Over many years I've done quite a lot of evaluation of web development tools in the Pascal space, and without going into too much detail, from the point of view of the quality of the architecture and design and implementation skills, and from a price perspective, I've consistently found EWB to be exceptional. I've not been using the EWB Server (been using other ones at enterprise grade) and it would be nice to see the server architecture move beyond MSWindows over time, but the Client platform is very impressive.

3.The latest release of EWB was this year (the email I received is dated 04/05/2024 - Version 3.02 Build 9). So the platform development is ongoing (but it's only to be expected that given the current world we're living in things will be moving much slower).

Personally, I'm a member of the EWB fan club And I hope that those who appreciate the quality of this product will continue to support it as much as they can.

<<
Steve Gill wrote:

My EWB subscription is up for renewal next month and I'm not sure what I'm going to do.

It's been almost 2 years since the last update (not counting a couple of bug fixes that were possibly only affecting one user - they weren't affecting me at least).

With the increasing cost of living in Australia that seems to know no bounds, high interest rates on mortgage rates that are killing us, and a downturn in sales and side hustles, we're doing a widespread cutting of expenditure across the board.

As much as I really want to support Tim, with nothing to show for it over the last couple of years, it makes me wonder if I should renew again for a 3rd year of possibly no new versions.  
>>

I asked this questions at the 1 year of inactivity mark....

With the crazy money I am sure Tim can earn at a job, Elevate Software is surely just a side line activity.

To Renew or Not to Renew - that is the Question - I will have to make the same decision soon too.

Walter

Robert Horbury-Smith wrote:

<< 1. Post Covid - economies have taken quite a hit, and small companies in particular will be under financial stress - I get that. There'll be ongoing need to cut costs until the economic situation improves. >>

Yes, which is why I considering whether or not to renew.

<< 2. Over many years I've done quite a lot of evaluation of web development tools in the Pascal space, and without going into too much detail, from the point of view of the quality of the architecture and design and implementation skills, and from a price perspective, I've consistently found EWB to be exceptional. >>

I completely agree.  There is nothing like EWB in the market.  It is exceptional in functionality and quality.

<< The latest release of EWB was this year (the email I received is dated 04/05/2024 - Version 3.02 Build 9).>>

I believe I referred to that, although just having a look at the release notes now there were a lot of bug fixes, not just a couple like I said.

<< So the platform development is ongoing (but it's only to be expected that given the current world we're living in things will be moving much slower). >>

That's not been my experience.  Technology has not slowed down at all.  If anything, it's moving faster than ever.  

<< Personally, I'm a member of the EWB fan club And I hope that those who appreciate the quality of this product will continue to support it as much as they can. >>

I'm a huge fan of Tim's work and have been using his products since DBISAM 2/3.  I absolutely love EWB.  This is not an attack.  I'm constantly amazed at what Tim produces.  I'm just voicing a concern.  

I have spoken with Tim a lot via email.  But recently those emails have gone unanswered.  I don't think for one minute that this is intentional.  There are probably things happening that we are unaware of.  But the lack of communication is a serious worry for me.  I just need reassurance that things are AOK.  An update on the forums now and then would be sufficient.

= Steve

Just thinking that this is probably not the ideal place to have this conversation.

Also - there may be many EWB users still out there who don't have a current subscription but are unable to post here because of the current subscription requirement.

Is it worth considering setting up some kind of online chat forum and inviting interested parties to join the conversation ?

Would also be a good idea to invite Tim.

<< Robert Horbury-Smith wrote:

Just thinking that this is probably not the ideal place to have this conversation.

Also - there may be many EWB users still out there who don't have a current subscription but are unable to post here because of the current subscription requirement.

Is it worth considering setting up some kind of online chat forum and inviting interested parties to join the conversation ?

Would also be a good idea to invite Tim. >>

I don't really have anything else to say about it.  

I was hesitant to post in the first place because I was worried that I might be causing problems for Tim.  Who knows, maybe there are events in Tim's personal life that are having a big effect.  

But then I decided that someone needs to bring this up as it's gone on for too long.  Time is not on anyone's side, and I'd like to get some projects done before I retire.

= Steve

> Is it worth considering setting up some kind of online chat forum and inviting interested parties to
> join the conversation ?

It's a free world, an alternate fan-run forum should be fine.   If it increases client activity and conversation, thus encouraging future for this product, then good!   I don't know what stifles converstion here, maybe you might find something to tweak to encourge more discussion.  You will need to come up with some guidelines and a moderator to resolve disputes, good luck.

I know I have always felt uncomfortbale discussing other vendor products here, even though my conclusious were that EWB was better for me.   It just seems icky to talk about anyone else when Tim's company pay for the web space.


> I was hesitant to post in the first place because I was worried that I might be causing problems for Tim.  
> Who knows, maybe there are events in Tim's personal life that are having a big effect.  

IMHO, it was a respectful post that considers his life is more than this product line or responding to our many queries and requests.   We all wish him well and success.   I'm sure that running. a small business is often challenging for him as it is for many on this list.  

I'm for anything that increases exposure of this product and encourages its growth.

Erick
EWB Programming Books and Nice Component Library
See my EWB BLOG posts, at:
http://www.erickengelke.com

> Is it worth considering setting up some kind of online chat forum and inviting interested parties to
> join the conversation ?

erickengelke wrote:

<<
...  I don't know what stifles converstion here, maybe you might find something to tweak to encourge more discussion.  You will need to come up with some guidelines and a moderator to resolve disputes, ...
>>

Re. the idea for a EWB forum, it's my understanding that users without a current subscription are unable to post here (don't know if they have read access - probably not ?).

We don't know how many active EWB users there are out there without a current subscription, and I was thinking that including them in this discussion might provide some ideas as to how we can improve the current situation.

It might also provide an opertunity for potential new users to seek information regarding the benifits of EWB (being a small company Elevate Software doesn't get much exposure in the Pascal metaverse - every lttle bit might help). So, thinking about how we might consider a public forum for EWB topics, I did some searching.

Discourse software (open source) looks very capable - but we'd require a host server (I've no idea how to find that kind of cost free solution - don't want to pay for one). If this is achievable, I'd be more than happy to dedicate time to manage it (although some additional help would probably be required).
Getting the word out to non-subscribed users might be a substantial issue though.

Is this worth further consideration ?