Don’t Believe It until You’ve Researched It - Thu, 2 Oct 2008

This blog title could very well have started an article about genealogy research, but in this case I’m talking about a quick websearch I did to find a fast database package for Behold. In yesterday’s blog post, I mentioned Accuracer by AidAim. They had posted how fast their database was and even gave comparisons with other similar packages to “prove” their point.

I wanted to believe their claims but I thought I’d search the web a bit more to find timings of other packages. I was very surprised to find a post at the Delphi discussion forums where a person asked what database to use, and there were 14 different suggestions. One of the responders had done his own timing comparisons and had found Accuracer to be quite slow compared to several others, which Accuracer had (conveniently) left out of their own comparison page.

The post, plus additional followup web research by me, led me to now be leaning toward DISQLite3, a product based on the Open Source SQLite program, but with enhancements to work in Delphi very quickly, with very small overhead, and with command-based calls - which I like. It is actively under development and will soon have an official Delphi 2009 version, although apparently the current version will work under D2009.

When you’re going to buy a product that you might depend on and spend a lot of time with, you should check out what there is first and what others say about it.

That especially holds true for genealogy software. You’ll spend a lot of time with a program, so don’t buy based on just what they say on the website. Download and try a few programs for yourself and always check what others have to say about it.

My Genealogy Software Reviews site is now a week old, and I’m extremely pleased with the initial response. The Genealogy Guys said “this one is really cool” and “long overdue”. Randy Seaver said “it will be an indispensable web page for genealogy software users”, and Dick Eastman said it “looks like a winner”. Over 180 reviews have been added already, and they are fascinating! People are so different and the opinions can vary greatly. Most people who have used one program for awhile are quite supportive of that program and give it 5 stars across the board.

So if you haven’t done so already, go out to GenSoftReviews and check out all the reviews and please do feel free to add your own reviews.