Re: Choose New Era???

If you want to add to the confusion see the 4 pressreleases from Mon Mar 31 at http://biz.yahoo.com/news/ifmx.html "INFORMIX-Data Director for Java (formerly INFORMIX-JWorks)" And there is "Data Director" for Visual Basic, PowerBuilder, C++, Forte, Seagate Crystal Reports and others (but no mention of Delphi - I assume Informix didn't want Borlands name in their pressrelease as it isn't exactly the best of names right now). There isn't a single line of explanation in the four press releases that I can find of what "Data Director" realy is. All I can deduce is that it "seems" to be an overriding name for a group of tools and middleware "things". It looks a lot like the technology they aquired from CenterView a short while ago. At the time it looked like they had something available for Visual Basic, while the rest is "in development". I can find no information at the Informix web site yet, not even the press releases. Anybody got a clue what this is all about? Cosmo Lee <cosmo@echonyc.com> wrote: :OK, I just got the newest copy of "Informix Times". They are talking :about JWorks as if it is a shipping product: "JWorks delivers :drag-and-drop Java development component". "Delivers"? Doesn't the use :of that word imply that it's doing it *now*, i.e.: it's available to :users? Well, even Informix seems to be willing to stretch language a bit... :Then there's the announcement about New Era 3.0, wherein the product is :described as a "solution for building...client/server, :Web-enabled...applications." "Web-enabled"? Is there a Web component :to version 3.0 of New Era? Hardly, but anything can be web enabled. I can run a 4GL program via a Java terminal emulator running as an aplet - web enabled? :Previously JWorks was sounding like New Era with Java code. Now they're :making New Era sound like JWorks. : :This is adding more to my suspicion that New Era and JWorks are going to :be folded into one product. It sounds like at the user level they look :the same. Do they just modify New Era's GUI builder to spit out Java :instead of C++ code? : :And if there will be JWorks, what reasons will there be to choose New :Era? The language, particularly if you have allready written a lot of code. Remember everything else about NewEra (or any other similar tool) is a small part compared to the programming language as soon as you have built a serious application. JWorks and NewEra will and must be quite separate products, at least for some time to come. One day they may have a NewEra - the language - to Java translator. At that time you may properly ask for the need for NewEra. It isn't quite clear to me however to what extent Informix wants JWorks to be a self sufficient and complete development tool. This particularly comes up with the new "Embrace" philosophy of Informix where JWorks *may* become an add on to other Java tools. Check the press releases. Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org