No fuss reporting for Delphi developers.(SCT Associates' Ace Reporter report generation software) (Software Review)(Evaluation)

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If you're looking for a compact, quick report writing tool that integrates into your Delphi application, but doesn't require complicated installs, ACE Reporter for Delphi deserves a look. Unlike other reporting options for Delphi, such as ReportSmith (which comes with Delphi) or Crystal Reports, that run as separate programs, ACE Reporter is tightly integrated into the Delphi development environment.

ACE Reporter takes advantage of Delphi's VCL component architecture to provide a high performance tool which builds on Delphi's strengths and the developer's knowledge of Delphi. It ships as a set of VCL components that install on the palette and get merged into the final executable (.EXE) file that the application developer generates. Since it's implemented as a VCL, ACE doesn't require a separate program to run a report, thus avoiding the performance hit of loading a separate report program.

Most visual report writers use the concept of bands to identify the different sections of a report. Ace Reporter isn't different in this regard--it recognizes that the basic concept of bands fits nicely with most reporting needs. ACE attempts to take the banded-report writer architecture to a new level.

Some of ACE Reporter's innovative …