Re: Informix & Jam/Jyacc

root@sstnyc.UUCP (Superuser) writes: >We have been developing applications in Informix for approximately 7 years. >While we are very satisfied with the database engines, we are looking for >an easier (and quicker) way to generate applications in addition to better >interfaces than what we can do with 4GL. We are considering using JAM >from Jyacc as the front end. Does anyone have any experience with this >product? Is it significantly faster to put together applications than it is >using Informix 4GL? It is important that we do not lose any of the >functionality that 4GL provides us. >-- >+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ >| - Eric M. Gordon, admin@sstnyc - OR - sstnyc!admin@uunet.uu.net - | >| - Voice: (718) 361-8900 Fax: (718) 361-3188 - | >+----------------------------------------------------------------------+ We made that decision back in '89 when we started develoment of a sales force automation product here at ST. I'll assume you are developing on a Unix platform. We are developing with Informix and JAM on the PC. We have worked with Jyacc for several years now on the development of several of our projects and have been successful in implementing solid, reliable software products using JAM. Originally a character based user interface development package, they are currently transitioning to X windows, and Microsoft Windows and maybe others. I have not had much dealings with these products but we plan to have them in here really soon for evaluation. It looks as if they are working hard to provide their clients a migration path. It will be interesting to see how smoothly they can move to a windowing environment. I have faith they'll survive the transition. Bob Ismach (president) is always willing to get on the horn and work with you. If you cannot resolve a problem, he'll get one of his technical gurus to work with you. They'll consider contracting an expert out to you if necessary. Their technical support staff has been good although we have not had cause to require their support for a year now. Back to 4GLs: we built a prototype using Informix's 4GL. Although it was standard PC character graphics, we could not get the application to look exactly the way we wanted it to and it was a slow performer. JAM was much more flexible, user interface wise, than Informix's PC 4GL product and there is no run time license. We decided to use JAM and bought a copy of Jyacc's newly introduced DBi product (Database interface.) This product worked by allowing you to write embedded SQL within JPL scripts (Jyacc procedural language.) While very flexible, we had problems using DBi primarily because it was still in its infancy. We elected to write our own database interface and we call it from JPL similarly to their DBi. Since that time, I suspect they have ironed out DBi for Informix but better not take my word for it! They also have a report writer to complement it. We have not seen that product. For queries that must be scrolled, ie page up, down, bottom, top, left, right, they provide a mechanism they call scroll drivers that provide you hooks to bring in results sets of queries, flat files and what have you. If you have not written embedded SQL aside from your 4GL work, this will require a bit of ramp up. JAM (Jyacc application manager) is their screen display executive. Optionally, you can write your own using their screen manager library. Writing your own is considerably more work, but using their executive may require some creative thinking in getting some things done. If you have junior programmers, try to go with their executive. Your own executive is more flexble but beware a significant extra effort is required if you 'do it yourself'. Investigate their executive closely and make sure you understand what it does and doesn't do and what you will have to do if you use only their screen manager functions to roll your own. A conference call with Jyacc will probably help. If you can use DBi, you may be able to build an application faster because you will not have to write as much control flow code, only some JPL and SQL statements. The application would probably run faster. JAM is fast enough but there is a fair body of code to link in. YOu can have hundreds of screens though. They are not in memory (unless you want them to be.) They can be kept on file or in a special library as your JPL scripts can be. So for a big application, you probably would have a smaller executable than using the 4GL. There are probably more considerations I have overlooked. If you have any specific questions after reading this, feel free to contact me. -- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Doug Moreland dm@salestech.com (404) 841-4857 Sales Technologies, Inc.