For those who are interested, this company is run by Carlos J.
Quintero from Madrid (Spain). I have been developing applications for many years in several languages, but for the last years I have been working with Visual Basic (since version 3.0), although mainly in the development of frameworks to build client/server applications. In fact, my main area of expertise
was in the use of database APIs such as ODBC and ADO, mainly
with Oracle, but now my best knowledge is about extensibility of Microsoft IDEs
(and about J2ME because I develop crossword games for Java-enabled mobile phones
too,
but that's another story). Since many years ago I spend a lot of time helping others
developers in
the Microsoft newsgroups and
Yahoo
forum for .NET add-ins and in January 2004 Microsoft recognized this work
for the community and awarded me with the
Microsoft Most
Valuable Professional (MVP) title in the Visual Developer .NET
category.
My interest in developing add-ins started around the middle of year 2000, due to the fact that the VB6 IDE, whilst being a good IDE, is not as powerful as I would wish
and has notorious deficiencies (such as Close Windows, Clear Immediate Window, Find And Replace In All Projects,
and so forth).
I also wished to become familiar with building web sites, domain registration and so on.
In October 2000 I first released my little web site with MZ-Tools 1.0 for VB6 supplied as a freeware tool. It was quite a simple version (as all first versions are) but which nonetheless enjoyed a lot of success.
The version 2.0, which was released about six months later, was even more successful.
In October 2001 I released version 3.0, which has been by far the most popular add-in
for VB5, VB6 and VBA.
Many of you are surprised that the version of MZ-Tools for VB6, VB5 and VBA is freeware. The reason is that the most amazing thing for me since the so-called
"Web boom" has not been "the underlying technologies" but
"the huge amount of free resources that you can find on the web, from tutorials to
software". Not only that but the fact there are so many people willing to offer others something for free, too.
Accordingly, I wanted to make my little contribution, which is that
version. For Visual Studio .NET I have created a new version 4.0 with most
features of the version 3.0 for VB6 (except some ones no longer needed) and also
with new features, some of them very innovative such as the Intelligent Design
Mode, which surely will amaze you. This version for Visual Studio .NET is no
longer freeware but a commercial product, but I have
made it very affordable both for individuals (even hobbyists) or companies, so
the cost should not be an excuse to enjoy it and both you and I can benefit
from the tool.
Another question that some ask is "What does MZ mean?". You?ll probably laugh, but
"MZ" derives from "Mazinger-Z", a very popular Japanese cartoon character (in Spain) in the late 70's when I was a child. The original name for the tools, Q-Tools, was not available for domain registration, so... ah well, Mazinger-Z was a very powerful robot with a lot of resources, just like these tools... Hmmm. ;-)
With Best Wishes
Carlos J. Quintero
