Re: WARNING: Say "NO" to patched

Madison Pruet wrote: > I'm still completly baffeled when a customer insists on staying on an older > release, say 7.12, and prefersl patches instead of migrating to a more > current > release, with the patch in place, which has gone through the complete QA test > suite. But it still happens ... Quite a mystery. I think the Informix engine is great, and that you have a wonderful product, but I HATE the way you do your releases. Here's why I don't rush to put on the latest release: 1. I'm completely baffled as to the compatibility of your engine releases with my compiled 4gl and esql/c applications. No one at Informix seems to be able to tell me what I need to do to upgrade to a new engine release. If I go from 7.11 for instance to 7.23, do I need to: a. recompile my 4gl and esql/c programs that were compiled on 7.11 and compatible esql/c and 4gl software? b. install new esql/c and 4gl runtime software? 2. We buy much of our application software from 3rd party vendors. If we upgrade the engine and then have a failure, the vendor's stock reply is "we haven't certified our application for that release of Informix." It's very frustrating and expensive to try to coordinate an upgrade or a patch with our vendors. 3. We have 250 stores with online and a 4gl runtime plus another 2 dozen instances at headquarters, labs, training centers, etc. Trying to upgrade is a logistical nightmare ( software distribution, coordinating down time, automating the process, follow up, etc. ). I can put up with the logistics nightmare (3), but the issue with vendors and especially the issue with software compatibility is major for us. Please tell me I'm worrying about nothing. Tell me that I can upgrade to new releases without worry about recompiling. I just wish there were more info available on compatibility between releases. Mike Ballentine