Can third-party vendors survive?
The Delphi community needs to remember that vendors and writers of free components all play roles in the community. If we want Delphi to penetrate the corporate world — where using a free but unsupported component is not a common practice — we need professional, commercial tools. Borland would benefit from this as well, and should probably do more to promote third-party vendors than it has done in the past. Third-party vendors are judged by the quality of work they produce. Many have provided innovative ideas that have helped Borland to push Delphi in new directions, and they should be rewarded for their efforts. My advice is to let vendors know you appreciate their work by buying the original tool instead of the cheap imitation. Make sure, though, that you ask vendors for the quality documentation and support they’ve promised you. Vendors should do their part by avoiding common practices like charging to make their components compatible with each new version of Delphi. I know that t
