I-SQL, I-4GL .03->4.0

There have been a number of requests for the differences between .03 and 4.1 Informix products. Problem is, you first need to know the differences between .03 and 4.0! Here are a couple of documents which I prepared earlier (any Blue Peter fans?) on the differences between .03 and 4.0 I-SQL and I-4GL, also containing the changes to the Standard Engine (SE) from .03 to 4.0. Watch this space for the next episode, which is 4.0 to 4.1. NB: I have not include Turbo -> OnLine here. Tony Lacy-Thompson DB Product Manager, Informix UK Author of "INFORMIX-SQL, a Tutorial and Reference" MAIL: tonylt@informix.co.uk FAX: +44 784 249600 PS I'm told that Lewisham Council have let Terry Waite off his Poll Tax - he was "permanently resident in Beirut". ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Feb 15 12:20 1991 INFORMIX-SQL 4.0 - NEW FEATURES Page 1 INFORMIX-SQL 4.0 - NEW FEATURES --------------------------------- FEATURE BENEFIT ------- ------- Structured Query Language ------------------------- Synonyms Synonyms may now be made available to all users on the system, instead of just the creator. The creator must grant users access permission. Essential in a distributed environment where it ensures location transparency - a short synonym may be given for a long remote table name and if the physical location changes, the synonym may be re-issued without recompiling the application. Unique constraints A unique constraint may now be applied to a column or group of columns at table creation time to create a unique index. Create schema authorization This new (ANSI) statement allows you to issue a set of CREATE and/or GRANT statements as a single unit. Grouping of nulls GROUP BY now groups all nulls into a single group, instead of each null having its own group. Comments Comments may now be added to source files using the ANSI "--" comment indicator, which has also been made available for PERFORM and ACE source files. PERFORM Screen Forms Processor ------------------------------ Comments Comments may now be added to source files using the ANSI "--" comment indicator. Previously comments introduced with # were automatically removed on compilation as being compilation error comments. This is also available for SQL and ACE source files. Wordwrap and The new WORDWRAP attribute wraps a long multiline editor character string (CHAR, VARCHAR or TEXT) to the next field that has the same field Feb 15 12:20 1991 INFORMIX-SQL 4.0 - NEW FEATURES Page 2 tag. For CHAR and VARCHAR fields it also invokes the new multiline editor, which allows you to insert and edit the text as if it was all one field. PROGRAM attribute (OnLine only). Allows you to associate an external program with a BLOB which is then invoked when you type a (!) when the cursor is on the BLOB field. COLOR attribute Field text may now be displayed in one of eight colours, optionally combined with up to four screen attributes such as blink or underline. The colour/screen attribute may be applied conditionally, as in: f012 = account.balance, color = red blink where f012 < 0; Graphics characters Lines and boxes may now be drawn in in forms forms by embedding the escape characters \\g and any of the characters p,q,b,d,-,| (representing corners, horizontal and vertical lines respectively) in your form source file. Screen size You may now specify a screen size other than the default of 24 x 80, using the syntax: SCREEN [SIZE lines [BY cols]] This allows you to take full advantage of large workstation screens, as the limits are now 600 x 600. Output in unload format You may now optionally output the displayed screen pages to a file in UNLOAD format. View option (OnLine only). TEXT and BYTE type fields may be displayed with the View option. The cursor is positioned on a TEXT or BYTE field and when a (!) is typed, the BLOB is passed to the program specified in the program attribute of that field. Terminfo support For those systems that support terminfo, INFORMIX-SQL may use the terminfo files for terminal capability information. Feb 15 12:20 1991 INFORMIX-SQL 4.0 - NEW FEATURES Page 3 ACE Report Generator -------------------- Comments Comments may now be added to source files using the ANSI "--" comment introducer, as well as bracketing comments using { and }. This is also available for SQL and PERFORM source files. WORDWRAP Displays the contents of a character column or expression on multiple, wordwrapped lines, and optionally with a temporary right margin. CURRENT Evaluates to a character string with the value of the current date and time as supplied by the operating system. Similar to date, but with the option to specify the precision, as in: print current year to minute READ section The SELECT section in a report may now be replaced by a READ section, which allows you to take the data from an ASCII file instead of from a database, which can be useful for testing or prototyping. Also in production, when many reports need to be run against a complex set of data for which retrieval speed is slow. Utilities --------- dbimport/dbexport utilities dbexport allows you to export a database, including both data and schema information, in ASCII format. dbimport allows you to recreate a complete database from dbexport files. Standard Engine --------------- MODE ANSI databases You may now create a database as MODE ANSI. In a MODE ANSI database, each and every SQL statement is automatically a transaction, and there are no BEGIN WORK or COMMIT WORK statements. Also, the name of an object (a table for instance) must be qualified by the owner of the object wherever that Feb 15 12:20 1991 INFORMIX-SQL 4.0 - NEW FEATURES Page 4 object name is used. ANSI compatibility checks The new environment variable DBANSIWARN allows you to check for any non-ANSI SQL statements. DATETIME and INTERVAL The new ANSI datatypes DATETIME and datatypes INTERVAL allow you to store both exact moments in time and time spans in the database. The precision may be set from years down to fractions of a second. There are a number of accompanying keywords and expressions which facilitate datetime arithmetic, which is particularly useful for those working with timetables, delivery schedules etc.