Re: 4gl

Steve Leung wrote: > > Hi all, > > After joining the news list a few months, I find a lot of > topics are still around 4gl. > > Is 4gl really that popular around Informix community? Apparently so. It wasn't a passing fad - it's something that just plain works. > > Is 4gl just another legacy thing? No future builtin? I wouldn't classify 4gl with something like Cobol, although both will be around for quite a while. > > Are there any similar products in the market that can do > a better job than 4gl? Don't know of any that would be in the same group although 4gl compilers have been appearing from third parties. 4J's for example is extending the language considerably. > > Is it still make sense to build character-based GUI applications? > What are the pros and cons? Character based UI's are fine if you don't need graphics. This is true for most business applications except for certain query/reporting requirements. Character based is quicker to produce and easier to maintain. It's thin client so you don't need huge PC's to run them and you don't need exorbitant network bandwidth. The application will work whether the user is connected via PC, Mac, dumb terminal or whatever. Modifications to the application are instantly updated to the users no matter how "far away" they are. You can determine at any time what users are running what application. Program errors can be centrally logged or even emailed directly to the developer. In a nutshell, character based is simpler. Here's a scenario: A user is located in a branch office in some town. He uses a big (many Mb) application connecting to a database in a city some hundred miles distant. He also wants to run the application when he dials into the office network from home. How are you going to do this with today's GUI tools? The 4gl user will see negligible difference whether he's located at home, at the branch office or in the same room as the database server. A change in the application is instantly effective to the user at home and he never has to reinstall or load the new version. Changes to the application (bug fixes, new features) can occur on a daily basis without any effort to distribute new versions. The user can also schedule a long-running report in background and turn his PC off (or disconnect his modem) while it runs. > > Will you recommend people new to Informix to learn 4gl? And why? This depends. You have to pick the tool for the job and 4gl still has its niche. However, I believe that Java based solutions will offer all the advantages of modern GUI environments without their many shortcomings. > > Any takers? Well, you asked for it :) > > /steveleung ---------------------------------------------------------------------- John H. Frantz Power-4gl: Extending Informix-4gl john@rl.is http://www.rl.is/~john/pow4gl.html