Filepro Version 5.0.15

[Bud Henschen]

Hello Scott,  I can understand your concern and complaint regarding a two
year old fix that requires a SCO update to work.  Let me take a couple of
minutes to address this.

First of all, 5.0.15 was a result of 5.6 (excluding the new features of
5.6)including the "license manager" and 5.0 "fixes". We had to decide rather
to go with the 5.0.15 for "fixes" or move to the 5.6 release and provide
requested features required to keep some of our longtime customers from
moving off of FP and to another vendor's product. We needed to end the 5.0
series "free" upgrades and to address new feature (2.0 GB limit, 64bit I/O,
additional indexes, etc)and move filePro into the future. To provide these
new features "free" was not practical nor good business. To accomplish this,
we chose to move to 5.6 and the licensing concept so that we could provide
"free" evaluation products with expiration dates and separate the base FP+
product from "special features" product like: sockets, ODBC, XLM, APIs, fP
mobile, Biometrics, etc.  We had to draw the line at some point; therefore,
we chose to release 5.6 with the new features and "fixes".  We had promised
5.0 "fixes"; therefore, we released 5.0.15 for "free" after 5.6 but
eliminate the "new" feature of 5.6.  Naturally, we do not have control over
SCO Unix or any other operating system; therefore, your problem with the OS
were out of our control.  SCO even changed the term caps, unknown to us,
which delayed the release of 5.6.   This is one of the things that can
result with any new release and I really do understand your frustration.
However, to make a special release and compile for: Unix, Linux (several
versions), Solaris, Window, AIX, Novell, etc. was not practical nor to
remove the License Manager from the 5.0.15 version knowing what purpose it
would serve in the future was not a good user of our time and resources
either.   Therefore, we proceeded as planned.

I know this does not solve your problem, but we can not cover all unforeseen
problems and we are definitely not trying to cause problems between you and
your customers.  If and when you should run into a similar situation in the
future, please feel free to contact me and I will see if we can address your
request in a more timely manner and if not try to explain why not.

Thanks for writing me and expressing your concern and I hope to see you in
Philly or Orlando.

Bud L Henschen


-----Original Message-----
From: Scott Walker [mailto:ScottWalker at RAMSystemsCorp.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 8:59 PM
To: 'Bud Henschen'
Cc: 'filePro Mailing List'
Subject: Filepro Version 5.0.15

Bud,

Just a complaint.  Take it for what it's worth.

Over two and a half years ago I reported a bug in rreport version 5.0.14.

The bug was finally fixed in version 5.0.15.

I was told I would have to download a license file from fptech for each
customer of mine and then install that file on their system.   OK,
that's a pain, but to get this bug fixed I would go the extra mile.
I've had a customer complaining about it for over two years.  Anyhow, I put
5.0.15 rreport on the first (7) customer systems and guess what...
it will work on only (1) of them.  Why?  Because the license manager code
you grafted into 5.0.15 rreport requires the /usr/lib/libm.so.1 and related
stuff to run.  FP support tells me that to use 5.0.15 rreport the customer
has to have support level supplement 646 installed on their SCO Unix
operating system.

So I'm faced with a situation where I now have to tell my customers to fix a
bug they've been complaining about for over 2 years, they now have to get
their system integrator to come in and patch their operating system

I really think it was a poor decision to implement this stuff in the way it
was.  A bug fix release that was so long in coming should not require me or
my customers to jump through hoops.

Regards,

Scott

Scott Walker
RAM Systems Corp.
ScottWalker at RAMSystemsCorp.com
Ph: (704) 896-6549
Fx: (704) 896-7458