Back from yet another mind numbing stint in dry-dock, I was reading The Delphi Disciple: Business Case for upgrading Delphi this afternoon and got to thinking about Delphi, the enhancements that have materialized in the newest IDE [D2007Win32], the continuous barrage of requests CodeGear seem to get on enhancing the OOTB tool-set and the wealth of 3rd party vendors that already have products in place that meet/exceed most, if not all, of those needs ... all from the perspective of who's looking after whom.
It's all purely hypothetical [to me] but I would expect that managing the growth of a tool like Delphi with its wealth of readily available third party tools and IDE enhancements must be a bit of a nightmare. Think about it for a second ... "How do we enhance our IDE or OOTB tool-set, enough to get consumers to buy the next version, without kicking the crap out of some third party tool vendor's source of income?" - quite the tightrope to have to walk. A bit on the melodramatic side but, there is a mutualistic symbiosis that exists between Delphi for Object Pascal and the third party tool vendors that is seemingly as tightly intertwined as the food chain itself. Some-one is going to get more than a little cranky when a new product rolls out the door and it includes a feature that they're not only already selling -but- trying to make a living on. Third party tools IMHO are a significant part of why Delphi is as popular as it is today. Delphi can't possibly envelop all that is available in the 3rd party tool market and remain viable. Doing anything to damage this market has to be considered as akin to shooting yourself in the foot. Like a lot of other product enhancement decisions ... it can't be easy.
As example, in the latest IDE, there were a significant number of enhancements to the IDE itself. Probably one of the most appreciated enhancements [from what I've gleaned from reading the newsgroups and blogs] is refactoring. Of note, two of the four IDE Add-Ins that I have loaded also offer the same feature - one of which, IMHO, still does it just a little better. It's also the one that cost me the most and although refactoring is only one item from its huge list of abilities, it is still my favorite. You have to wonder how much went into the decision just to offer refactoring in the IDE. Was the decision made because there were already several third party tools that offered it making the feature [somewhat] market neutral, was it because it wasn't the killer feature and wouldn't really be expected to effect sales in the commercial tools that have it ... or some other equally logical reason.
You have to acknowledge the fact that the owner[s] of commercial 3rd party tools live in a precarious world where their product can literally disappear at the whim of a team they have little influence and absolutely no control over, at any given release. I would expect the folks over at Developer Express would be more than a little pissed if CodeGear upgraded their tool-box and matched the commercial VCL Win32 Tools feature for feature and their sales figures dropped into the sewer ... but I've often wished for the day [sorry ... actually it's a compliment]. I just have to believe that CodeGear considers this when the feature list of the product that's next up for release is being decided?
Being a hobbyist, these decisions are a little easier as there isn't a significant resource [any for that matter] to dip into when it comes to enhancing Delphi with 3rd party tools. I too, quite selfishly, would like to see them wrap all the tools I want into the IDE as OOTB tools figuring that, then I'd be set. I also tend to go for the freebies if there is something I really would like to add -but- that has its issues as well. I have [somewhat begrudgingly] dipped into pocket for a few things -but- they've got to be pretty cool for me to get the credit card out. I even had the audacity to go to one [quite well known] vendor and accost them hoping they were open to suggestion ... just because the "tool bundle" they offered wasn't to my exact requirements. They astoundingly, along with a very polite "bugger off" in regards to the custom bundle I'd requested, even rejected my seemingly brilliant marketing proposal of making their bundles available on a mix-n-match basis. Very odd these 3rd party tool people, that idea alone should have netted me free tools for life :)
... but I digress.
Producing a product that has all the tools and enhancements that will both attract new users and keep the old ones coming back for more, just has to be excruciating exercise. Even more so with a toolbox that is getting a little old and dusty - the parent/grandparent of most of that available from the vendors. The point at hand being only one of the many significant factors that are probably seldom even thought of by consumers of the product. You have to tip your hat to any team that can deal with all of this while fending off the abuse they get [on a regular basis from the disgruntled] and still get such an amazing product out the door. To you and your team Nick, you're doing an excellent job.
From the other side of the fence, if the 3rd party tool vendors price their product inappropriately ... what choice does that leave CodeGear - they not only need to, but have a right to survive as well.
Just a thought, thanks for stopping by ...
Dave
Hi Dave
ReplyDeleteGood to know that you're reading the Disciple and that's it is engaging you. You make a very good point in this article that I simply hadn't considered.
In my lust to have all the functionality come from CodeGear in Delphi itself, I didn't think of all those third-party vendors who, as you said, could lose their edge on the whim of what CG decide to put into the next version of Delphi.
That said, I'm pretty sure then that CG tread very carefully when they're looking at what they can add into the next major release to ensure this doesn't happen. After all, it would be a colossal foot-in-mouth if they kicked their own supporting vendors in the teeth.
Although it does help sort out the wheat from the chaff. Good companies that are dedicated to writing good third-party tools will survive because that is what they do best. Poor, unsupport components will fall by the way side, and maybe they should. Third-party vendors will almost always do better than CG can do in their chosen area. And I guess this is why we see more and more open source or cut-down professional versions of third-party products bundled with Delphi these days: FastReports, Indy, Intraweb, TeeChart, etc.
Jason, thanks for the comments.
ReplyDeleteYou make some very interesting points that bring to light additional complexities of the relationship between CG and the 3rd party tool market.
"Third-party vendors will almost always do better than CG can do in their chosen area." ... excellent point. With the array of features and functionality in Delphi itself, how much attention can you dedicate to any one specific tool or set of tools. If, as a vendor, all I'm doing is providing that one tool/tool set, it's easy ... all my time. Actually, it really does have to be either all or a significant part of your time simply due to ... survival. Survival in a market where your product really has to be rock solid and feature rich, especially considering your intended clients - programmers.
The symbiotic relationship between CG and the 3rd party tool vendors, as it stands today, is pretty significant at least as I see it. IMHO, CG simply couldn't bring a viable product to market [at least not one I could afford] if it had to include the tools/features that are available from 3rd party vendors and [it goes without really saying that] there wouldn't be much of a 3rd party tool market without CG.
Furthermore ... if CG did absorb an existing mature product would they, given current conditions, be able to maintain it as well as if it was still the sole focus of the previous owner? Even if they were unique tools and you gave them away, I'm betting CG would have to give it some very serious though before sending you off to the JEDI group.
Yet, I still want/hope to get all the tools that I need out of the box ... economics, go figure :)
again ... thanks.
Dave