Steema Central

Greetings,

The latest TeeChart Pro ActiveX v2013 release is available for download now from the Steema web.

TeeChart Pro ActiveX customers may download the version via the customer download page.

Release notes may be viewed at the version info page.

Regards,
Marc Meumann

Hello,

We are currently using both Activex 2012 version and the latest .NET version in our software. We are very happy with the versions and the features provided.

We had a question about the road map for Activex,

a) Is the feature set always going to be on par with the .NET version ?

b) Is there some chance of you guys scaling back or even discontinuing the Activex version in the near future ?

We are thinking of replacing .NET with Activex version in some of our software and at this point they are similar in the feature set, we wanted to know if this will continue.

Thanks

Hello Activex7,

TeeChart Pro ActiveX is a COM wrapper of TeeChart Pro VCL. Having that in mind, TeeChart Pro ActiveX will be on par with the VCL version. Functionality is constantly being ported from VCL to .NET version and viceversa. Considering that the ActiveX is a COM wrapper of the VCL version, there are no plans to discontinue it for now. However, ActiveX/COM technology is quite old, probably little or nothing is being done on it. So our recommendation would be to replace ActiveX applications with .NET ones.

Thanks Narcís. We already have a existing code base of un-managed vc++ and due to lack of 64 bit Activex version at that time we were forced to use the .NET version using a wrapper. Now that you have a 64 bit version we were thinking about going with Activex. So what time frame are we talking about before we notice some scale back in features in Activex ?

Do you have any idea if we decide to go with Activex in the above mentioned application, would there be any performance gains ? I know it makes life a bit easier for the developer W.R.T debugging and all.

Thanks

Hi Activex7,

Activex7 wrote: So what time frame are we talking about before we notice some scale back in features in Activex ?

No idea, currently there are no plans for that.

Activex7 wrote: Do you have any idea if we decide to go with Activex in the above mentioned application, would there be any performance gains ?

Depending on the nature of the application. What sort of application are you developing? Also notice that TeeChart for .NET includes a Direct 2D version which may help you on this. Please read the TeeChart.Direct2D white paper here.

Thanks for your reply Narcís. With regard to our application, below are some details....

Our applications use MFC GUIs for data visualization. Normally we use ActiveX version with them. For 64bit versions, we were forced to use .Net version. The issues we have with .Net usage within MFC are:
1. More development effort (both due to additional C++/CLI code as well as the control not being available at design time)
2. Longer build times (due to /clr switch being used)
3. Debugging issues, especially with Visual Studio 2012 (mixed mode debugging is often hit or miss and often doesn't hit breakpoints).

Our applications are large enough that migrating the GUI to .Net or WPF is a big task in itself. With 64bit ActiveX TeeChart being available, we wanted to switch back to ActiveX to avoid these above issues. Even with all the issues mentioned above, would you still advice us to continue with .NET than switching to TeeChart ActiveX for the long term?

Thanks

Hello,

Given the kind of applications you develop then it might be worth using ActiveX. For .NET you might better switch to .NET native WinForms applications.