Readers Choice
By Jerry Coffey
Shuffling the Deck
Delphi Informant Magazine Readers Choice Awards 2003
Last year's Readers Choice Awards seemed to indicate that, after many years of volatility, the pace of change had slowed significantly in the Delphi third-party tools marketplace. For example, in the 25 categories last year, 19 featured repeat winners from the previous year.
Then TurboPower Software dropped a bombshell in January of this year, announcing they were no longer doing business as a vendor in the Delphi arena. Although TurboPower made their decision for reasons that had nothing to do with Delphi (see Alan Moore's interview of TurboPower's President Gary Frerking), the announcement sent shock waves through the Delphi community. And because TurboPower had 10 products in nine categories, our Readers Choice Awards were deeply affected as well.
In brief, you can expect to see some new products moving into the spotlight in TurboPower's absence. And there's certainly no shortage of products; this year's ballot featured 299, up from last year's 228.
In addition, we're always tweaking the categories to make them more accurately reflect the great diversity of products in the Delphi third-party marketplace. To that end, we've added three new ones: Security Tool, Team/Project Tool, and Web Host, so there are now 28.
So let's get to it!
Best Accounting Package
Broken tie. Last year, ColumbuSoft's Accounting for Delphi tied for first place with BS/1 (from Davis Business Systems Ltd.). This year however, Accounting for Delphi emerged as the clear winner with 33% of the vote, besting runner-up BS/1 with 23%. Bravo (from Bravosoft) takes third place for the third year in a row.
Best Add-in
Add-in redux. This category is a near carbon copy of last year's results, with the same products finishing first, second, and third. Developer Express' CodeRush (purchased recently from Eagle Software) took first place for the fifth straight year, with 36% of the votes. ModelMaker Code Explorer (from ModelMaker Tools) took runner-up with 19%, and Multi-Edit from American Cybernetics took third with 12%.
Best Book
Thunderdome. This year, Best Book turned into a battle between titans, the latest editions of the two most popular Delphi titles: Mastering Delphi 7 from the indefatigable Marco Cant? and Borland Delphi 6 Developer's Guide by Steve Teixeira and Xavier Pacheco. Cant?took first place with 44%, while Teixeira and Pacheco took runner-up with 39%.
Best Charting/Mapping Tool
Steemarolla. Not much new in this category. Although its percentage dropped 10 points, from 69% to 59%, Steema Software's teeChartPro still dominates Best Charting/Mapping Tool, and has done so since the category was introduced in 1998. That's six consecutive first-place finishes! ExpressOrgChart Suite (from Developer Express) placed second for the third year running, while Chart FX (Software FX) has emerged from the pack to place a solid third.
Best Communications Tool
New champ. This category has been owned by TurboPower's Async Professional for the last six years; last year it took 75% of the vote! With TurboPower gone, however, this category was completely up for grabs. The new winner is RemObjects SDK (RemObjects Software) with 39% of the vote. IP*Works! Delphi Edition (/n software) repeats as runner-up with 22%.
Best Database Connectivity
New connections. After placing first and second for three straight years, Jason Wharton's IB Objects and ASTA (ASTA Technology Group) must be satisfied with third and fourth. The two new winners in this category are Advantage TDataSet Descendant (Extended Systems) with 20%, and FIBPlus (Devrace) with 15%.
Best Database Engine
Horror vacui. For three years now, this category has featured close competition between DBISAM Database System (Elevate Software) and Advantage Database Server (Extended Systems). Advantage Database Server won by 3 percentage points in 2001, and the products actually tied for first place in last year's balloting. This year, however, DBISAM has taken first place in convincing fashion with 40% of the votes, with Advantage garnering 28%.
It's also interesting to note how these two products are taking a higher percentage of the total votes. Advantage and DBISAM combined for 53% of the vote in 2001, and 54% in 2002, but this year they teamed up to take 68%. This would appear to indicate that they have moved into the vacuum left by TurboPower's FlashFiler, last year's third-place finisher with 20%. Apollo took third place this year with 9% (down from 15% last year), with Software Science's TOPAZ for Delphi nipping at its heels in fourth place with 7%.
Best Database Tool
So close. After three wins in a row for Woll2Woll Software with their InfoPower product, this year they'll have to be content with runner-up. But it was extremely close, with winner IB Expert (HK-Software) taking 21% to InfoPower's 20%. This marks a significant gain for IB Expert, which finished in third place last year with 13%. It leapt over ExpressQuantumTreeList (Developer Express), which finished in third place again this year with 16% (last year it pulled in 18%).
Best Debugging Tool
Bugs out. Not only does this category have a new name (last year it was Best Testing/Debugging Tool), but with TurboPower's Sleuth QA absent, it has a new winner as well. After three second-place finishes, this year you selected Raize Software's CodeSite as Best Debugging Tool, giving it 33% of your votes. The runner-up is AutomatedQA's AQTime with 27%. That's a big advance for both products; last year CodeSite got 24%, and AQTime finished in fourth place with 10%.
Best Globalization Tool
New world order (kinda). The players haven't changed, but they did reshuffle a bit. MULTILIZER VCL Edition (MULTILIZER) wins for the third straight year with 31% of the vote. TsiLang Components Suite (SiComponents) has second place all to itself this year (with 26%) after sharing it last year with Localizer (Korzh.com), which slipped to third with 20% this year.
Best Help-authoring Package
No help necessary. It was a bit surprising last year to see Help & Manual (from EC Software) emerge from the pack to win this category with 29% of the vote, because HelpScribble and RoboHELP had finished one and two the three previous years. But there was no looking back this year; Help & Manual has gone on to dominate the category with 51%. Going the other direction, last year's close runner-up, HelpScribble (JGsoft), fell to third place with 12%, while last year's third-place finisher RoboHELP stepped up to second with 15%.
Best Imaging Tool
Photo finish. The voting in this category ended in a dead heat, so Best Imaging Tool honors will be shared this year among ImageLib Corporate Suite (from Skyline Tools), and LEADTOOLS Imaging Toolkit (LEAD Technologies). And this category is heating up! ImageEn from HiComponents finished a strong third with 22%.
Best Installation Package
Slugfest resolved. This category continues to be dominated by the two installation giants: InstallShield Software and Wise Solutions. InstallShield is clearly pulling ahead in your estimation, however. After beating Wise last year by 6 points, InstallShield has gone on to best Wise easily by 19 points.
Best Library
Into the breach. TurboPower's SysTools had taken first place in this category for the last three years. Last year, however, after losing ground in 2001, SysTools edged out runner-up, ExpressBars Suite (Developer Express) by just three percentage points. If that trend had continued, ExpressBars Suite would have won this year. With SysTools gone, it's a moot point of course, and ExpressBars Suite won easily with 41% of your votes. ElPack (EldoS) finished a respectable second with 12%.
Best Modeling/CASE Tool
A question of scale. ModelMaker and Rational Rose have finished first and second (respectively) in this category for three years now, but ModelMaker Tools' offering continues to pull away from the Rational Software product. In 2001 they finished with 27% and 22%, last year it was 40% and 21%, and this year the numbers are 54% and 19%, respectively. And despite the stiff competition, Developer Express' CDK garnered a respectable 12% to take third place. If these trends continue, Developer Express will be right in there with Rational.
Best Reporting Tool
Slippery slope. This category also features a long-time winner, ReportBuilder (Digital Metaphors), in first place. However, its numbers have slipped a bit again this year. In 2001 in had 57% of the votes, 54% in 2002, and this year the percentage has dropped to 37%. Moving the other direction, FastReport (FR-Software & A.Tzyganenko) is runner-up again, and continues to gain ground. In 2001 it had 12% of the votes, it had 20% in 2002, and it has climbed to 29% this year. Rave BEX (Borland Edition EXtended) finished third, its best showing ever, undoubtedly on the strength of having a version bundled with Delphi.
Best Scheduling/Calendar
Critical path confirmed. This category enters its second year with the same winner and runner-up. TMS TPlanner/TDBPlanner (TMS Software) took first place with 63% (building on last year's 51%), while Jazmine Calendar/PIM Widgets (Jazmine Components) took second place again with 17% (virtually the same as last year's 18%).
Best Security Tool
Better safe. This is the first of three new categories. Security has become so important, I'm surprised we haven't called out this category before. In previous years, these tools ended up in various categories such as Best Utility, so it's good to see them finally competing head-to-head. First place goes to UIL Security System (Unlimited Intelligence Limited) with 28% of the votes. The runner-up is IP*Works! SSL (/n software) with 22%.
Best Team/Project Tool
E pluribus unum. Another new category this year, Best Team/Project isn't as crowded as the previous group, but the competition was fierce, with three of the four contenders making solid finishes. With 37% of the votes, Team Coherence (Quality Software Components) has first place to itself. Not far behind however, is PVCS Professional (Merant) with 33%. Rounding out the top three, AQdevTeam (AutomatedQA) placed a very respectable third with 27%.
Best Testing/QA Tool
Test results. AutomatedQA goes from a respectable third in the previous category to a dominating first place in this one, with its TestComplete product taking 60% of the votes. DevPartner Studio (Compuware) and Rational Robot (IBM Rational) share second-place honors as each received 18% of your votes.
Best Training
Sir yes sir! Last year's surprise winner, Jensen Data Systems, takes the Best Training prize again, this year with 30% of you voting for their Delphi Developer Days workshops. There's a new face as runner-up, however, with Kazoo Software's 24% besting last year's runner-up InfoCan's 15%.
Best Utility
YAT (yet another tie). ASPack (from ASPack Software) is a repeat winner with 23% of the vote (down from last year's 30%). But with the absence of TurboPower, ASPack must share the win with VM Workstation (VMware), which managed to pass last year's third-place finisher, Beyond Compare (Scooter Software), which improved its percentage to 16% from last year's 12%.
Best VCL Component
Best Grid. Your pick for Best VCL Component is ExpressQuantumGrid (Developer Express) for the third year running. It got more votes than ever this year, and a higher percentage as well - 43% as compared to last year's 39%. TAdvStringGrid (TMS Software) repeats as runner-up with 16%. Since most of the third-party grids fall into this category, ExpressQuantumGrid can rightly claim to be Best Grid.
Best VCL Component Set
Game, set, match. Developer Express wins in this category as well, and for the second year in a row. You gave ExpressQuantumPack 28% of your vote (as opposed to last year's 22%). TMS Software is also a repeat as runner-up with its TMS Component Pack and 20%. Raize Components (from Raize Software) finishes a strong third - from a field of 23! - with 14%.
Best Web Development Tool
Something old, something new. Last year's winner, IntraWeb from AToZed Software, strengthened its position in this category with a whopping 62% of the tally (last year it had 41%). This year's runner-up, ExpressWeb Framework (Developer Express) replaces last year's runner-up, Internet Professional (TurboPower) with 25% of the vote, vaulting past last year's third-place finisher, ASP Express (Marotz Delphi Group), which fell to fifth place.
Best Web Host
Host with the most for Delphi folks. Our last new category recognizes the Web host you liked best. Defined Systems was the clear winner with 31% of your votes. There was a tie for runner-up between Reddi-Web and 1&1 Hosting, each with 17% of the votes.
Product of the Year
Winds of change. ReportBuilder has been the recent perennial champion in this special category, but its reign has ended (it actually fell to fifth place!).
Your new choice for Product of the Year is Help & Manual from EC Software. The number two spot changed hands as well, with ExpressQuantumGrid (Developer Express) replacing Advantage Database Server. Just for fun, here are the products that placed first and second as POY over the years:
1996 InfoPower, (unknown) 1997 InfoPower, Orpheus 1998 InfoPower, Apollo 1999 ReportBuilder, Orpheus 2000 ReportBuilder, Apollo 2001 ReportBuilder, Advantage Database Server 2002 ReportBuilder, Advantage Database Server 2003 Help & Manual, ExpressQuantumGrid
Company of the Year
A look back. It might also be interesting to look at the relatively brief history of this award. Company of the Year goes to the organization with the most first- and second-place finishes for the year. I decided to create the award in 2000 to recognize the remarkable achievement of TurboPower Software that year; they placed first in six categories - a third of the categories at that time.
Company of the Year became a tradition, and TurboPower won again in 2001 and 2002, but with a slimmer margin of victory each year. In 2002, TurboPower had three first-place, and two second-place finishes, with Developer Express hot on their heels with a win in two categories and three as runner-up. Again, the trend favored Developer Express, and they seemed likely to win this year. Again, we'll never know because of TurboPower's departure.
In any case, Developer Express is the clear winner of Company of the Year for 2003, with four first-place rankings, and two runner-up finishes. And, unlike previous years, there's no one even close.
Hat's Off!
As always, I thank the tireless Delphi third-party vendors who create the products that are the subject of these awards. Without these entrepreneurs who are willing to risk their time and effort each year, there would be no Delphi community. And, of course, I thank all of you in the Delphi community for voting. We received the most votes ever this year, which is pretty amazing since there are fewer of you using Delphi than when we started the awards in 1996. You're a more devoted group now, however, and that makes all the difference.
Jerry Coffey is Editor-in-Chief of Delphi Informant Magazine. You can reach him at mailto:[email protected].
Contacting the Winners
Best Accounting Package
Accounting for Delphi
ColumbuSoft
Web Site: http://www.columbusoft.com
Best Add-in
CodeRush
Developer Express
Web Site: http://www.devexpress.com/index.shtm
Best Book
Mastering Delphi 7 by Marco Cant?/p>
Sybex
Web Site: http://www.sybex.com
Best Charting/Mapping Tool
teeChartPro
Steema Software
Web Site: http://www.steema.com
Best Communications Tool
RemObjects SDK
RemObjects Software
Web Site: http://www.remobjects.com
Best Database Connectivity
Advantage TDataset Descendant
Extended Systems
Web Site: http://www.extendsys.com
Best Database Engine
DBISAM Database System
Elevate Software
Web Site: http://www.elevatesoft.com
Best Database Tool
IB Expert
HK-Software
Web Site: http://www.ibexpert.com
Best Debugging Tool
CodeSite
Raize Software
Web Site: http://www.raize.com
Best Globalization Tool
MULTILIZER VCL Edition
MULTILIZER Ltd.
Web Site: http://www.multilizer.com
Best Help-authoring Package
Help & Manual
EC Software
Web Site: http://www.ec-software.com/hmpage.htm
Best Imaging Tool
ImageLib Corporate Suite
Skyline Tools Imaging
Web Site: http://www.imagelib.com
LEADTOOLS Imaging Toolkit
LEAD Technologies
Web Site: http://www.leadtools.com
Best Installation Package
InstallShield
InstallShield Software
Web Site: http://www.installshield.com
Best Library
ExpressBars Suite
Developer Express
Web Site: http://www.devexpress.com/index.shtm
Best Modeling/CASE Tool
ModelMaker
ModelMaker Tools
Web Site: http://www.modelmakertools.com
Best Reporting Tool
ReportBuilder
Digital Metaphors
Web Site: http://www.Digital-Metaphors.com
Best Scheduling/Calendar
TMS TPlanner/TDBPlanner
TMS Software
Web Site: http://www.tmssoftware.com
Best Security Tool
UIL Security System
Unlimited Intelligence Limited
Web Site: http://www.uil.net
Best Team/Project Tool
Team Coherence
Quality Software Components
Web Site: http://www.qsc.co.uk
Best Testing/QA Tool
TestComplete
AutomatedQA
Web Site: http://www.automatedqa.com
Best Training
Delphi Developer Days
Jensen Data Systems
Web Site: http://www.jensendatasystems.com
Best Utility
ASPack
ASPack Software
Web Site: http://www.ASPack.com
Best VCL Component
ExpressQuantumGrid
Developer Express
Web Site: http://www.devexpress.com/index.shtm
Best VCL Component Set
ExpressQuantumPack
Developer Express
Web Site: http://www.devexpress.com/index.shtm
Best Web Development Tool
IntraWeb
AToZed Software
Web Site: http://www.atozedsoftware.com
Best Web Host
Defined Systems
Web Site: http://www.defined.net
Product of the Year
Help & Manual
EC Software
Web Site: http://www.ec-software.com/hmpage.htm
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