Dear Marco,
I fully respect your opinion, but the way I see it is that FWH allows you to use whatever third party tool that you may want to use: If you want to use FR then you are free to do so. Other users also used Crystal Reports, etc. This means total freedom to choose the right tools for you.
Along the years I have learned (we all have learned) that using "closed" software solutions always bring troubles, sooner or later. See what happens with OLE components, i.e. as CodeJock. Here in the forums you can review all sort of troubles that users had.
To me the point is not to discuss what report engine is better. Everyone here is free to choose the one that he prefers, and this is real fine.
Timm did a great job with EasyReport. Ok, it may be far away from FR, but if we are lucky enough to get its source code, and given the potential that we all have here, EasyReport will improve very much. Now, look at the advantages: no need to use an external DLL, self contained EXEs, etc. Having its full sources will give us total freedom to modify and enhance it. And please notice that I say "we", not "I" (me)
Regarding being FiveTech a single-man company, I totally disagree with you. From an external point of view, someone who know anything about FWH, it may seems so. But if you review these forums activity, and if you know the real evolution of FWH, its not true. it is the result of a great team of people along the years
I am just the owner of FiveTech, but how many developers actively work and worked on the FWH source code ? Nageswararao (India): he has done an incredible job on the Class TXbrowse, ADO management, but not only on those areas, lots of code besides those come from him and also a great tech support that he provides on these forums. Daniel (Venezuela): the RibbonBar, TFolderEx, TTitle, PNG support, etc (just to name a few of them), Enrico (Italy) great tech support here for years, Charly (Barcelona) The FWH debugger (just to name one of his best contributions), Uwe Koening (Germany) for state of the art graphics managements, etc., Paco García (Madrid-SAGE) he has built lots of classes and extensions to FWH, Manuel Alvarez (Spain) he not only masters FWH, but also FiveMac, Cristobal Navarro always helping here and now besides mastering FWH is learning and surely enhancing soon FiveMac, Anser K.K. (India) always providing great tech support and fixes, Rafa Carmona (Barcelona) have developed many usefull classes that many of use use, etc. (surely I miss to name many of them as even for me its impossible to remember and thank to all of them). See how many FWH Classes are all around, developed by FWH users. And this means that lots of users nowdays have the mastery to make FWH grow as needed. I don't know any other xbase related company that have this
level of flexibility and openess that FiveTech has offered for years. And to me, this is the key for the real success of FWH. All of you have been cooperating with the development of FWH for years and years
In fact the official FWH repository where all its sources are kept, is placed at bitbucket.org (on a private repository) but its not just me who has access to it. For years a group of selected developers had and have access to it, working in a perfect coordination: Nageswararao, Daniel, Charly, Uwe, Anser K.K., Enrico and more (because we are always open to welcome new contributors when they show real interest about it). Recently another Spanish software development company has been given access to it (I don't know if they may mind to name them), having access to FiveTech sources. More over, just review your FWH sources folders and more than 95% FWH sources are there. How many bugs and fixes have been solved by all the users ? So WE, all together, have the real full potential to make FWH grow. There are lots and lots of FWH Classes in internet developed by so many developers, that to me its impossible to remember all their names. I don't know of any other company that has provided this level of openess and great coordination between private and open sources.
In fact, if I would die, I have given clear instructions to my wife and some collegues (great friends), so FWH will continue alive, growing and publishing new versions. Full sources are at bitbucket.org. Just the right login and password, and its all there. To me I am just the technical leader, supervising FWH direction, and trying to help all FWH users as much as I can, but it is not just "me". We are a great team that actively work on FWH. I could be easily replaced and FWH will continue ahead and very much alive, exaclty like when the CEO of a large company is replaced
Many users here have clearly express their desire to have an open source reports engine, free, that could be included in their apps. EasyReport may not be as powerfull as FR now, but if we finally get it from Timm, we may read this thread in a few years and who knows how powerfull will be EasyReport by then
I can remember when Linus Torvalds started Linux. Nobody considered him as a real menace. Now see how powerfull Linux is. Harbour is getting more and more users every day, literally thousands of users around the world. If Clipper is still used by some companies, how many years will Harbour be alive ? Same as Linux. And how long time FWH will be used ? I would say a long long time ahead
Sorry for the long post, but its good to explain this so all of us clearly understand it
