Re: Windows development Tools

MarkDenham@aol.com wrote: :David, : :Long term you would probably be better placed with an activeX solution. The original poster was Huw Richards who asked for a solution for PCs and Macs. That rules out ActiveX. Although Microsoft is doing some work on making ActiveX available on other platforms than Windows PCs it is unlikely that it will ever be very interesting. (On Unix it can't possibly be - how many would port their ActiveX controls to Unix? The problem would be the same on the Mac although there may be more ported controls.) :It is almost inevitable that ActiveX will dominate given the mentality of :most :development shops. Its almost Big Blue with a different name (how many of :you can remember the saying 'Nobody ever got fired for buying IBM' from the :70s/early 80s?). Java is becoming a very strong alternative for many types of applications. If you listen well to the market there is a strong dislike also of the Microsoft way of doing things. Their dominance isn't the major problem, although a few also dislike that. Other issues are the limitations of ActiveX, security issues and particularly beeing bound to nothing but MS Windows for the workstations as well as the servers. Another very important point is of course that ActiveX is so useless on the Internet that it borders on the immoral (and sometimes goes well on the wrong side of that border) to use it for general Internet purposes. ActiveX is however very usefull for many purposes on an intranet if you are in a PC only environement. For the original poster it isn't of much use. :Microsoft will no doubt encapsulate Java into an ActiveX environment in the :near future, if they have not already done so. They have allready done a lot of work on this. You can create ActiveX components in Java and use existing (non Java) ActiveX controls from Java. This isn't necessarily bad, but part of Microsofts efforts are to make Java a Microsoft controlled environement. Should they achieve that we are all in for major trouble. It's very unlikely they will however. There are very strong market forces at play here that even Microsoft have difficulties with. :Another useful venture would be to work with Microsoft to enable Transaction :Server to talk to an informix database....which reminds me Tim, add that to :your list of goodies would you? Yes, of course this should be added to the list. It's the first transaction server that's even remotely interesting for regular smaller developers. All the others are expensive hard to use beasts. MTS may not be a very good tool right now, but at least one can afford it, and it's easily available. :Mark :MarkDenham@aol.com (home) :Denham.M@amstr.com (work) The original poster asked: Huw Richards <huw@adsoft.com> wrote: :Hi, : :We are about to redevelop our existing Informix character based :application into a Windows client. : :This has to be deployed on both PCs and Macs. : :What tools are other companies using to develop their Windows clients :connecting to Informix Databases? 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