WD Breaking News
Posted by Michael Drechsel
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Re: WD Breaking News March 05, 2026 07:29AM |
Just my two cents..
I think that few people today would trust installing anything from PC Soft on their “golden” dongles.
For most of desktop projects (e.g., ERP systems, data exchange, file system manipulation, crud on databases, windows services, api calls, comunication with physical devices, etc), a WD20 IDE is enough, as it does almost everything you need. Most of the native features introduced in later versions can be replicated with a few lines of code that queue up functions ever since available.
Even for graphical interfaces.. many features, templates, skins provided by new versions can be easily replicated with combinations of existing controls. Even better if you have a WD25 or recent WD2024/2025, which seem to be among the most stable dongle versions after WD20.
In my opinion, freelancers and small businesses have quite no reason to switch to subscription model if they develop mainly on desktop.
Of course, you will miss out on AI developments, but for the moment I don't think this is such a serious shortcoming if you have built your own framework to do the things you need, even developing workarounds to overcome all the unresolved PC Soft bugs.
With recent dongle WDs you can also develop stable and powerful web services to manage internal functionalities for individual company installations and for this purpose a 10-connections WAS is generally sufficient.
So working with desktop IDE is indeed wonderful, especially for people that lack experience in other languages, technologies and tools.
In short, it is not a universal rule but honestly in my business from WD25 "I can't do it in Windev" has never happened to me. It's so true that I have never considered upgrading even when subscription didn't exist yet, if not out of curiosity..
The real problem arises on Webdev, where between WAS (if you publish sites, 10 connections are certainly not enough) and the need to stay always aligned with web evolution, the only choices are: either bow your head and subscribe or quickly plan to give up PC Soft.
I never did web development but all my colleagues/partners that used webdev said it has never been up to par with other widespread technologies and tools (python,node,php,etc). So people could avoid or flee from Webdev for other reasons than subscription, it seems not to be a "must have" tool like windev desktop. On WB I stop talking here because I don't know it very well.
On mobile the situation is similar to Webdev, although perhaps less critical. If you make apps that go on stores aimed at the public, you have to align yourself or change tool, both for the app and for the web service, if windev, on the server side. However, if they are internal apps for individual customers, a WM25 still is more than enough. It does practically everything you need, and you can often rely on a WAS 10 connection if you run them using local data or if server access for data read is lightning fast. At worst, you can install 2 or 3 on various machine.. Ugly idea but it works.
Personally, I'm following everything with interest and curiosity, but I think that with my dongles I will happily reach retirement age and leave the problem to posterity
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2026 08:07AM by GSWD.
I think that few people today would trust installing anything from PC Soft on their “golden” dongles.
For most of desktop projects (e.g., ERP systems, data exchange, file system manipulation, crud on databases, windows services, api calls, comunication with physical devices, etc), a WD20 IDE is enough, as it does almost everything you need. Most of the native features introduced in later versions can be replicated with a few lines of code that queue up functions ever since available.
Even for graphical interfaces.. many features, templates, skins provided by new versions can be easily replicated with combinations of existing controls. Even better if you have a WD25 or recent WD2024/2025, which seem to be among the most stable dongle versions after WD20.
In my opinion, freelancers and small businesses have quite no reason to switch to subscription model if they develop mainly on desktop.
Of course, you will miss out on AI developments, but for the moment I don't think this is such a serious shortcoming if you have built your own framework to do the things you need, even developing workarounds to overcome all the unresolved PC Soft bugs.
With recent dongle WDs you can also develop stable and powerful web services to manage internal functionalities for individual company installations and for this purpose a 10-connections WAS is generally sufficient.
So working with desktop IDE is indeed wonderful, especially for people that lack experience in other languages, technologies and tools.
In short, it is not a universal rule but honestly in my business from WD25 "I can't do it in Windev" has never happened to me. It's so true that I have never considered upgrading even when subscription didn't exist yet, if not out of curiosity..
The real problem arises on Webdev, where between WAS (if you publish sites, 10 connections are certainly not enough) and the need to stay always aligned with web evolution, the only choices are: either bow your head and subscribe or quickly plan to give up PC Soft.
I never did web development but all my colleagues/partners that used webdev said it has never been up to par with other widespread technologies and tools (python,node,php,etc). So people could avoid or flee from Webdev for other reasons than subscription, it seems not to be a "must have" tool like windev desktop. On WB I stop talking here because I don't know it very well.
On mobile the situation is similar to Webdev, although perhaps less critical. If you make apps that go on stores aimed at the public, you have to align yourself or change tool, both for the app and for the web service, if windev, on the server side. However, if they are internal apps for individual customers, a WM25 still is more than enough. It does practically everything you need, and you can often rely on a WAS 10 connection if you run them using local data or if server access for data read is lightning fast. At worst, you can install 2 or 3 on various machine.. Ugly idea but it works.
Personally, I'm following everything with interest and curiosity, but I think that with my dongles I will happily reach retirement age and leave the problem to posterity
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/05/2026 08:07AM by GSWD.