Subject Re: You Ask - What Is The Future Direction For dBASE2019
From Peter Hegelbach <peter@hegelbach.com>
Date Fri, 7 Apr 2023 09:49:04 +0200
Newsgroups dbase.getting-started

Good day Paul

Thanks for the clarifications. It seems that by now the "team" is so
small has very limited capacity to focus so much and solely on
developing a new version. Just this very honest description of the
circumstances furthers my concerns. There is obviously no overall
strategy, no plans and no communication concept anymore. Or all plans
are so modest that one would rather not talk about them. The effect is
that dBase LLC is perceived more as a covertly operating hobby club than
as a serious enterprise.

Best regards
Peter Hegelbach

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

Am 07.04.2023 um 01:02 schrieb Paul McGee:
> Dear Mervyn et al,
>
> I will be speaking for myself, Mike will chime in if he has anything he wants to add to the conversation.
>
> I understand your concerns about the lack of communication from dBase, LLC. I want to assure you that we are committed to the future of dBASE and are working hard to develop a new product that will meet the needs of our customers. We are a small team and it will takes us longer to deliver than before especially when confronted with a worldwide epidemic and family health concerns.
>
> I know that it has been over three years since the last dBASE upgrade, and I apologize for the delay. We have been working on a number of new features and improvements for the next version of dBASE, and we wanted to make sure that we got it right before we released it or even talked about it. We also know that everytime we've announced a new beta version, sales for the existing version drop to near zero. We still have people depending on us for their pay even with the very reduced income stream. In many ways, we are like that duck on the pond who looks perfectly still but underwater his feet are moving a mile a minute.
>
> I understand that the lack of updates and communication, especially email blasts, has been frustrating for you and other dBASE users. I take responsibility for the lower volume of email blasts. I heard from many people on our email list that it was too much, too often. We've also been concentrating our resources on product development and not educational email content so the production of educations emails has been very limited.
>
> I want to invite anyone who is interested and has an interesting story about using dBASE to solve a unique problem or even a programming challenge that they've overcome that they want to share to send me an email and I will review it along with other members of the team and share it with everyone else if appropriate.
>
> I want to assure you that we are committed to providing you with the information you'll need to evaluate the next version of dBASE software. We will be providing updates on the development of the new product when the delivery to Beta is imminent, and we will be sure to communicate with you before we make any major changes.
>
> Thank you for your patience and understanding.
>
> Regards,
>
> Paul McGee
> VP Sales and Operations
> dBase, LLC
>