to be honest, last year's awards were a lot more dramatic. coming as they did after turbopower software (then a major player) decided to leave the delphi arena, there were new winners to announce in many new categories; it was a genuine sea change. the opposite is true this time around; with no new big players entering or exiting the stage, this year's awards resemble last year's in many categories. happily, there are enough new products and place changes to keep things interesting, so read on.
there are two modifications to the balloting this year. there's one new category: best build tool. and sadly, there weren't enough books in the past year to justify a best book category. it's the first year without it. until quite recently there was only one book that qualified: advantage database server: the official guide by cary jensen and loy anderson (published by mcgraw-hill osborne media). cary and loy are well-known, world-class writers and the book has received sterling reviews in these pages and on amazon.com. once the balloting ended, we received our first copies of delphi for .net developer's guide, by xavier pacheco, et al. it's the latest installment of one of the most respected series in delphi history, and is also receiving stellar reviews on amazon.com. we'll be reviewing it soon in di.
in contrast, there are more third-party tools than ever. there were 228 in 2002, and 299 in 2003. this year the count topped out at 339, so delphi-related books seem to be the exception rather than the rule when it comes to delphi-related products. so let's get to it...
best accounting package
trading places. this year's first- and second-place finishers are the mirror image of last year's, with bs/1 (from davis business systems ltd.) taking top honors with 25% of the vote, and columbusoft's accounting for delphi taking runner-up with 21%.
best add-in
it's a rush. it was a closer finish, but developer express' coderush took first place for the sixth straight year with 27% of the vote (last year it took 36%). this year's runner-up brings us our first tie with athlant (from devrace) and tms plugin framework (from tms software) each garnering 18%. last year's runner-up, modelmaker code explorer, drops to fourth place with 16%.
best build tool
no competition. this is a brand new category, so no one knew what to expect. what happened was a blowout, with atozed software's finalbuilder taking 79% of the vote. quality software components came in a distant runner-up with 12% for their tc builder.
best charting/mapping tool
steemarolla (again). steema software's teechartpro dominates best charting/mapping tool again, with 45% of the vote - its seventh consecutive first-place finish! runner-up is a tie between tms diagram studio (from tms software) and easymap vcl (from microolap technologies), each with 13%. last year's runner-up, expressorgchart suite (from developer express), dropped to fourth place.
best communications tool
new champ (again). last year's winner, remobjects sdk (from remobjects software) has to be happy with runner-up status this time around. since then, atozed software has released a commercial edition of their popular open-source indy product. it's called indy plus and it took first place with 36% of the vote.
