CLaueR's Blog

ClaueR,
A good debate. Will Borland succeed in an IDE market dominated by Microsoft?

I absolutely agree Claus. Competition is good and I really do hope that Borland succeeds ( by the way I liked the flash demo. their product does look good). Any progress made will enrich all of our lives.

What I don't understand is why they are creating a new IDE as opposed to plugging into the existing VS IDE. Every feature you described in your April 24th post ( with the possible exception of their own c# to IL compiler ) can be a plug-in into the VS IDE.

I really do applaud Borland's efforts and their efforts will undoubtably cause Microsoft to hurry up and add new features to their IDE product line. But Microsoft has a history of decimating their competition. Look at Lotus 123, WordPerfect, Netscape and the like.

There are exceptions to this and Borland has a history of doing things well. I never programmed with Borland's C++ for Windows, but friends of mine who have say it is a great environment and one they prefer over MFC. Delphi is another example. Again I have never programmed in it, but friends of mine who have are die-hards about it.

But Microsoft has staked a rather large flag in the middle of the IDE market with VS.Net. I'm just wondering if Borland hopes to claim a large portion of it. Or are they happy with a very small piece of the pie?

Again. I hope Borland does well because as you pointed out, "We all will benefit from it". I'm just not sure they can.

-Mathew

Hi Mathew,

<blockquote>What I don't understand is why they are creating a new IDE as opposed to plugging into the existing VS IDE</blockquote>

Well, may be some answers can be found in the answer to the second question in this interview published on DrBob42. May be they also needed their own compiler to benefit of more/different hooks that the genuine MS C# compiler has not. I don't really know. One might only try to guess.

Here's the interview:
www.drbob42.net/sidewinder/interview/

/Christophe

<blockquote>Well, may be some answers can be found in the answer to the second question in this interview published on DrBob42. May be they also needed their own compiler to benefit of more/different hooks that the genuine MS C# compiler has not. I don't really know. One might only try to guess. </blockquote>

Interesting interview and their acquisition of Bold and Together gives them the ability to compete with Rational.

My blog also sparked a debate with John Shute. http://chimpswithkeyboards.com/blog/

He contends that Borland is really completing with Rational. After reading this interview I tend to agree with him.

About a year ago I was at a technical round-table with about 15-20 other techies. At the round-table was a sales exec from togethersoft ( he was the only sales type person there! ), He had some interesting things to say about their capabilities. I haven't used their toolset, but I have used Rational's. Ever since their 1998 version, Rational's footprint has gotten increasingly large and more difficult to use. So I believe their is ample opportunity for the right company to step in.

My debate is centered around Borland creating a new IDE and subsequently competing against Microsoft's VS.Net. As opposed to plugging into VS.Net with their advanced toolset. Especially if they are attempting to compete with Rational. Now if they are trying to build a cross-platform IDE to support both Java and Delphi that makes sense, but Sidewinder is just for C#.

I am obviously not a marketing expert and I would love to use Borland's toolset, but I don't want to use 2 different IDE's. Maybe I will have to if I find their toolset that compelling.

-Mathew Nolton