I'll chime in here.
I nabbed VPM in November, and was productive in November. You'll be amazed at how fast you can bang out an application! The doc's are not bad, but the support network on ProMatrix newsgroups (I think there's 5 all together) is superfine. Replies come in short order.
Out of curiosity I downloaded Codebook the other day...my frickin' head aches and I still don't have a clue as what to do next :( I got it installed and created an application...but things came to a screeching halt at that point. The documentation sucks big time, and looking at the web site for support it seems that there is nominal activity and days between questions and answers.
If you just have to have a client server app, then Codebook would have to be your choice (but VPM has a client-server version coming). If you want a framework that will let you bang out an app in record time, give VPM a whirl...it'll blow your mind!
>I'd like to strongly second Ken's opinion. I have also found VPM to be a very strong product with excellant support (mostly peer support) and a very robust set of features.
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>>Mon,
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>>I went with Visual Promatrix Version 5.0c about a year ago. Compared to my previous Roll-Your-Own framework, it gave me a dramatic increase in productivity. Also, the company has recently demonstrated a serious commitment to addressing developer concerns, as they have made some significant changes as a direct result of our requests (and faster than I thought they would).
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>>What I really enjoy about VPM is the discussion groups they sponsor. They have a peer group, an announcements group, and a Chatter group, as well as a Priority group.
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>>As for extendability, I have my complaints. After much experimentation, I settled on a restricted application of very discrete extensions. Some things I simply do not do because I don't want the headaches of reimplementation when a new version comes out. Nevertheless, I have created what I call a "Subframework" for VPM that provides a basic structure for extending it. Several other developers have taken this and worked their own mods into it, and now it falls on my shoulders
to integrate these and post it again. But, that is what I wanted.
