I haven't followed this newsgroup for very long, but so far there have been
a lot of messages regarding BDE 5.0 and some really {*word*193} side effects of
upgrading to BDE 5.0.

Are these just isolated cases, or is BDE 5.0 really that messed up?

Brad

---------------------------------------
Terry Swiers
Millennium Software, LLC

Atrex Inventory Control/POS -
   '96, '97, '98 - Ziff-Davis/PC Magazine Shareware Award Finalist

http://www.1000years.com

---------------------------------------

--
Bill Todd
(Sorry but TeamB cannot answer questions received via email)
(Remove nospam from my email address to contact me for any other reason)

- Ken

I've a problem using transactions on dBase IV files.
BDE 5.0 gives an internal limit error (on 'Tra1.MB') on a large
transaction (+/- 5000 different operations) while BDE 4.51 worked
well.

I wonder if someone else has got a similar problem, because Inprise
say they can't reproduce it.

Jan

In my *personal* experience, BDE 5.0 is one or two notches worse than the
typical "a few new bugs in the new release".

It caused extensive problems in a production app written in Delphi 3.02.  I
still haven't gotten everything working yet.

I broke a lot of things.

If you use master/detail relationships, or if you use FoxPro files, you will
have serious, nightmarish although not totally unresolvable problems on your
hands.

The worst part of it is that in my case, the problems caused hard-app lockups
whereever I had a detail-side table displayed in a grid, which is like all over
my app.  This makes debugging and developing workarounds very tedious.  It
takes me back to the FoxPro DOS 1.0 days.

You wind up throwing 3 fixes at a problem before each compile/test cycle, and
when it's fixed, I hesitate to go back and pin down which one actually worked
because it's such grindingly slow and tedious work.

I would have switched back instantly, and still might, except that I *can*
actually make the BDE 5.0 work with tons of fixes and code-rewriting, wherease
there was a documented bug in the BDE 4.51 that I had real trouble getting
around.

In short, I have never experienced a stable, solid version of the BDE yet (in
my FoxPro table-based LAN environment).  But I'm hoping that it is fixed RSN.
I will never use it in another project, however, because it turned a happy
client into a grumpy client.  Personally, I put the BDE on a par with Quick
Reports.  My suggestion is that anyone who can afford to should code with a
replacement.  My perception is that Inprise is not investing or committing to
the BDE, which is probably a good idea <g>.

I wanted my first large project to use the native database abilities of Delphi
so that I would understand what Delphi is doing and what a 3rd-party product is
doing.  I did learn that.

Check Gerald Nunn's editorial at http://www.gexperts.com/xtreme.html.  The only
thing I disagree with him on is that IMHO, the lil' tiny 3rd-party component
vendors offer *better* support for their products than Inprise has done for the
BDE.  For example, other than the customers and and excellent TeamB volunteers
in these newsgroups, there is no official acknowledgment of the BDE's problems
or status on the Inprise website.  The BDE site (TI's and FAQ's) has not been
updated in like forever.

I love Delphi, I plan to use Delphi 4 (which I've already bought as a show of
support) after the next patch, but the BDE is a weak link.  I never complain
about Quick Reports (like the users over in the reporting forum) cause I was
smart enough to never use it! <G>.  Soon the same will be true for the BDE...

It is Bug 21823: See Re: Some Internal limit (see context)

For many of us we MUST revert to D3/BDE4.5.

If there is any info on a fix please let me know.

Finally I am sure inprise products and the bde is a stable environment you can
build on. Use all tools as close as possible to the designers idea.

Kind Regards
Max

--

=======================
MBS Software Co., Ltd.
M.-Ph. Blickenstorfer
67/359 Mooban Tantong 5
Phuket 83000
Thailand
Tel     : +66 76 242 516
Fax     : +66 76 242 383
e-mail  :  m...@loxinfo.co.th
=======================

Thanks,

Jan

The truth is that the BDE does NOT support FoxPro files for multi-user access, as
claimed.

In my opinion, Inprise should either provide a driver or NOT.  Providing a non-working
driver lacks integrity.  This is not an exaggeration or a flame, just fact.  The
Inprise site says officially documents in BDE 4.51, one user cannot insert then post a
record while another user is editing another record in the same file.  (The result is a
File Is Locked error that locks the application and sometimes damages the file index.)
The Inprise site says nothing about BDE 5.0, but it absolutely will not support
master/detail relationships, and doesn't always fire table events.  Actually, BDE 5.0's
implementation of the FoxPro driver is much much buggier (ie, unusable).

Inprise should come right out and say that the FoxPro driver is provided for read-only
access of FoxPro files and light-writing of single-tables, but that the FoxPro file
format should NOT be used as the primary foundation of a mission-critical business
application requiring relational integrity.

If there's something wrong with that, please tell me what.

I would (and will) still use Delphi.  I just would have used a database with it that
actually worked.

The solution to the whole problem is open and honest communication from the vendor, pre
and post-sale.

<snip>

Kind Regards

Max
--

=======================
MBS Software Co., Ltd.
M.-Ph. Blickenstorfer
67/359 Mooban Tantong 5
Phuket 83000
Thailand
Tel     : +66 76 242 516
Fax     : +66 76 242 383
e-mail  :  m...@loxinfo.co.th
=======================

John Kaster, Enterprise Product Manager
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