Writing for AIX and NT - IMPOSSIBLE
Here is a follow-up to my previous posting... In article <FeycrYAibJbzEwcV@apvpeter.demon.co.uk>, Chris Jakeman <cjakeman@apvpeter.demon.co.uk> writes >We've been working for some years with a large application on Unix using >AIX, graphics and Informix for the database. The database is accessed >using both ESQL/C and 4GL and the 4GL forms are displayed to the user in >'xterm' character-only windows. > >We want to add Windows NT to our list of supported platforms and it >would be much better for us to have common code for AIX and Windows NT. > >Has anyone tried to do this? No-one has admitted to doing this - I am now finding all the obstacles! If I set them out in some detail, perhaps you might have some suggestions that would save time and money?? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ If the application was database only, we could write in New Era for Unix and re-compile it using New Era for NT. But it isn't database only - it uses Unix services to communicate with other programs and also uses a graphics library. Finally it can be accessed from remote screens using X-Windows. We can obtain the Unix services on an NT system (and X-Windows on PCs) by using NuTCRACKER from Data Focus. We also pay for porting the graphics to work under NuTCRACKER. The remaining problem is the 4GL forms displayed in text windows. It came as a shock to find that NT doesn't provide anything like X-Windows where a PC can run a program on the NT m/c and see the results on its local screen. Informix don't provide a 4GL product for NT - only New Era which has its own windows which would not work alongside graphics in X-Windows. Even if there was a 4GL for NT, it would only write to a window on the NT m/c, not on a remote PC. We would need something called 'x-term' to create a text window on the remote PC and 'x-term' is not available from the NuTCRACKER people because NT doesn't have the hooks necessary. I can find only 2 ways forward. The first is strewn with gotchas: 1. Find an 'x-term' utility for NT and an Informix 4GL for NT. The second is expensive: 2. Replace the 60-odd forms using 4GL with ESQL/C and an X-Window GUI. On NT, NuTCRACKER will make the GUI look like a Windows one. Any comments anyone? Is there a compatible 4GL for NT which writes to a text window? Is there an 'x-term' utility for NT? Bye for now Chris Jakeman at Peterborough, a cathedral city 80 miles north of London. Where do you come from? Voice +44 (0)1733 753489