-> The other thing that bothers me is load times for the executables and
-> access times have to be acceptable.  I worry that I will find - when
-> I have completed my Delphi version it will be as slow as molasses -
-> and virtually useless as a product.  I can't figure out how to get
-> some sort of preview of the the final results will be if I stick
-> with a DElphi approach.
Does Load time really matter in commercial environment? It makes the
most sense to me to load up all the apps needed in the morning and leave
them running. Once the apps are running, they perform fast on a decent
system with enough memory. I see alot of people (and I even catch myself
doing it) running Windows 95 or NT loading and unloading one program to
start another. I would think a Database would be used off and on through
out the day if not used all day. I think the first thing would be to try
some of the Delphi Database examples and see if they can perform as
needed. I am not a database expert, but I have seen some impressive
results with Windows based database in VB, Access and Delphi. Using
Delphi as the front end for the database is not going to slow down
anything. If the database engine included with Delphi can do what you
need, you could always write a small utility to to read your old
database records and store them in the new database if it can't directly
read them (what database are you using now?).
-> I am hearing stuff on the Delphi Internet newsgroups - here and
-> there - that while Delphi proveds a lot of supportive stuff for
-> remote databases the support for stand alone databases - like mine -
-> are much weaker.  I dont' understand what that means and I don't
-> want to find out two years from now what this means.
I suggest doing some tests. It wouldn't take that much to create
database tables in Delphi using the including tools, and write a simple
app that could populate it with test data. Then you could test searches
and all the things you need to have the app do. I am sure some of the
Database Gurus here could offer some suggestions. Remember, Delphi can
access most of the database types that are popular today either directly
or through ODBC. Since your program can be a front end, you can always
write a new front end later in something else if needed (though I don't
know why).
Steve
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