Agreed. Before I even bought, I found a bug in a specific routine I was looking at. It was older code that was slated to be deprecated and replaced, but I needed the specific older version, so he fixed it, and issued me a new library to try. He earned my business, so I bought MBS and the Chart Director. Couldn’t be happier with the purchase or the support he gives. Not that I would expect him to go out of the way like that for me in the future, but it spoke volumes about the type of business he runs.
I use the MBS plugins because it enables me to get the task done in the most time efficient manner. Thus far the MBS support has been excellent and the documentation abysmal.
I currently use the MBS plugins with RealStudio because for me presently Xojo does not measure up to doing anything in a time efficient manner with the exception of compiling.
Christian works very hard to extend the functionality of Xojo and provide support to those with questions. He succeeds on both fronts based on the number of Xojo developers using his plugins and what appears to be a high level of satisfaction among us. His plugins will save you time and likely pay for themselves very quickly, assuming your time equates to money.
- 1 for MonkeyBread Plugins
I would not expect this either. I’ve used third-party plugins in Delphi, VB and Xojo. I would not expect that MS, Embarca-wotsit and Xojo to assume any responsibility if the provider goes pop. Like any business, it’s a risk I assume. I still do wish that there were more standard controls and stuff in Xojo tho’ 
This isn’t about my business or yours, I’m talking about Xojo’s business, and if they can stomach a sizeable portion of their user base suddenly having tons of Xojo source code relying on unsupported plugins. The difference is in Delphi and VB you have a large selection of 3rd party controls to choose from, the users can just move to the next and adjust their code. Xojo, that’s not the case. Sure they could do what they want, but if they told me the Listbox was my only option for a grid control or my only option for a charting package was some long abandoned RB code from 2005, I would not exactly call that a smart business move.
The way they have built this business is to rely on a few select companies to provide 3rd party controls to fill some big holes in their offering. Hard to imagine their response would be “Gee, that’s a tough break for you Mr. Independent Developer. But can I sell you another desktop license to make you feel better?”
Of course this all hypothetical and hopefully it would never be an issue, but I have always wondered what Xojo would do if Einhugur or MBS just closed up shop.
[quote=18132:@Melvyn Pate]Sure they could do what they want, but if they told me the Listbox was my only option for a grid control
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You a make it do almost anything! 
Seriously if you know it well it is amazingly flexible … but more options would be welcome in Xojo itself.
Yes a spreadsheet type control and at least some basic but decent charting/graphing control along with PDF production (and maybe a a splitter control ) would fill what I think are very basic holes in a RAD environment…
They are filled now by 3rd parties for those that can afford them…
I agree if the 3rd parties were to disappear Xojo would be under a lot of pressure to provide at least those controls.
The listBox is very good for smaller grids, but it has column limits, flickers on Windows when you have to show a lot of data (and yes, I’ve tried the make it invisible, draw, then make a visible again, doesn’t work well on Windows at all). Look guys it’s not just me, just rifle through the old forum and look how many people have requested a better grid.
I think we are officially into Thread-drift!
I have different feelings about different plugins. However I feel the presence of the plugin SDK and a healthy third party market of extensions is good for the language/platform/ecosystem as a whole.
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