Review of MBS
As a developer You know that clients usually evaluate Your softwares from two aspects, the GUI's usability together with the functionality. What we also know is that Real Studio provides us with a basic toolkit but where the toolkit excludes some controls together with some components. In other words, we must consume our limited time with developing own solutions and/or own workarounds to meet the requirements. At the same we also know that we don't get full paid by the clients for all the hours we spend on developing softwares.
So how do we resolve a situation like that? The short answer is; we simple use third-party components. Developers have always been skeptical towards other developer's work and using third-party components was, when they become available, not an exception from that "rule". However, the progress during the last 10-15 years has forced us to change attitude and simple accept existence and the use of third-party components. The benefit is that we can reduce the development time, we can focus on the essential parts of the solutions and by using third-party controls we can also boost the GUI in our solutions.
Yes, using plug-ins definitely solves some problems but it also put us in a different position in that we must trust and rely on third-party vendor(s). And, of course, that the quality of their components and services meets our requirements. Deciding which vendor(s) to use becomes a critical business issue for us putting us in exactly the same situation as our clients face. In my experience Monkeybread Software (MBS) is a vendor with great products and an excellent support. The more we learn about their components the better we can leverage them and we may also get a higher ROI. The components I use from MBS are both reliable and stable. Their controls make the GUIs in my solutions to be more user-friendly and put a quality stamp on both me and my products. To summarize, MBS and their products are highly recommended.
Dennis Wallentin
RB Developer
MS Excel MVP