Build or Buy? Redux

Last week I wrote:

Now that my one-person software company is well-established, some decisions that used to be hard to make have become no-brainers. For example, should I code a Java component myself, or should I buy a quality third-party component that does the same thing? Unless it is outrageously expensive, the answer is easy: buy, buy, buy.

An insightful anonymous commenter wrote:

A problem is that the more 3rd party APIs you add, the more bugs you get that are close to impossible to fix.

If you have a bug or a performance problem in your own API, you know it, it can be fixed.

When it’s in a closed 3rd party component, you have to cross your fingers they’ll respond (and be able to reproduce the bugs), etc.

I thought this comment was right on the money.

So what happened when I tried JXFileWatcher and found it didn’t work in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger)? I reported this to them. A few days later they e-mailed me to say that it was fixed. They also included a link directly to the new download.

JXFileWatcher is a product from TeamDev, a small Ukrainian company.

There’s a third part to this story, which I’ll share soon…