Pros & cons of FM7 Developer vs plane Jane

[VicWhy]

Could I have some opinions on what Filmemaker Developer 7 will do for me that FM Pro7 won't?

Why should/shouldn't I go for the D?

Your comments would be much appreciated.

[Fenton]

You should do a search on this, as we just had this discussion a while ago. Here's a short version:

1. Renaming files. Handy to a developer, who sometimes has to send "versions" to clients, or who "repurposes" files in other solutions. No longer essential however, as you have far fewer files in 7.

2. Script Debugger. This is my current fav feature. I just did some pretty complex nested loop scripts, with control passing between scripts, doing math on numbers (golf scoring -). It really made a difference to be able to run the scripts with Debug on, setting control points, so I could see the results of each loop.

You could do the same without it, setting Pause, Beep and/or Message steps. But that gets old (and confusing) in a hurry. Plus Debug lets you Stop the script cold as soon as you see what's wrong.

3. Custom functions. You may seldom use these, but when you do they are pretty amazing. Plus, other people are writing them and making them available; you don't have to write them yourself. Any version of FileMaker can run them, but you need Developer to add them to your existing files.

4. File Maintenance commands. Do in one step what we used to have to "Save a Copy As", then delete the original, then rename the copy, to trim down bloated files. Not a big deal, but way more convenient. Can also "optimize" on the disk, which is new, and may make a speed difference for really large files.

All and all I'd say that none of the above is essential, or a compelling reason for an ordinary FileMaker user to cough up the extra dough. But if you're a developer, the extra convenience and features are worth the money.

[Ender]

For a large solution, Developer is essential. I use the script debugger all the time, and I have found custom functions to be a great way to simplify some otherwise complex features.