Re: 4GL Certification Test Writing Contest

Bruce Zuehlsdorff wrote: > > Tim Schaefer wrote: > > > > Shannon Wallner wrote: > > > > > > Write questions for the INFORMIX-4GL Developer Certification Exam and > > > receive $50 for each one chosen for the final pool of questions! > > > > > > > > Shannon, > > > > Forgive me for being a devils' advocate, but I just have to ask: > > > > Why on earth would anyone care about this now, with 4GL on a > > respirator? > > It's a dead product. > > > > I mean, this looks like something that should have come out when 4GL was > > born, > > not now, when its' life is ending. Maybe you could sponsor this for > > Universal > > Server or for something that's worth spending the time and money on. > > > > Of course, I could be completely off the mark... > > > > :-) > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Sorry, Tim, but in my opinion you are WAY off the mark. We are very > successful selling our CASE tools for I-4GL development, as well as our > accounting systems built with CASE tools written with the I-4GL product. > The reason they sell is because they are proven, cost effective, can > handle large transaction capacity, and can be modified for a specific > customer's use in less time than any alternative. > I don't doubt your products' success. I am in doubt as to being certified for 4GL, which is not progressing as a product. I don't doubt 4GL as a successful software product either. I'm a big fan of it. I assert the product is dead. It ceases to progress. It lacks many features, development concepts and ideas other products give TODAY. I come not to praise 4GL but to bury it. :-) ( I question large transaction capacity, as needing a definition.) > With new products that generate GUI screens and new capabilities to > add Browser based screens for Internet / Intranet applications, the > result is a toolset that delivers what businesses need now, not an > eternal pilot project that continues to miss deadlines and needs more > budget and excuses to complete. > But 4GL does not work in a browser. Something else does, but not the 4GL I've been using. The certification is for 4GL, not your products. :-) > Granted, there are many tools out there, and they work for some limited > tasks, but until a complex finished application can be delivered with a > new toolset in less time and for less cost than the current one, I-4GL > will be around a long time. Informix is happy to take the orders. And > so are we. Oh yes, and I commend you for your success. I too have much to be thankful for 4GL. I would not have stayed in the computer business this long if it hadn't been for UNIX and INFORMIX. :-) ( And lately some of the 4GL I've seen is enough to make me want to leave the computer business. :-) > This message is not meant to be a flame, but another view based upon our > first hand experiences. > I believe you. But I would not take sales as a sole indicator of what makes a product a "dead" or "living" product. The 4GL product has not been drastically improved to the satisfaction of many in the INFORMIX community. It has not improved significantly, or regressed. It is therefore a dead product. It lacketh life and movement. Maybe by a business marketing term I use "dead product" differently than you. Maybe we traditionally think of dead product in the sense of not making any sales. I look at new 4GL sales as a short-term solution in light of the latest web products being offered. After all, the early white papers on Universal Server were talking about how it would kill PERL and CGI. So I think this is something to think about. I think if there was a next step it will be 4GL-to-Java conversions...Now that could be quite impressive. And THAT would be worth the certification if somebody could tell me the benefit. Certifyably, Tim > Bruce Zuehlsdorff > Data Pacific Corp > brucez@datapac.com -- Tim Schaefer \\\\|// tschaefe@shadow.net (6 6) ------------------------oOOo---( )---o00o--------- http://www.shadow.net/~tschaefe Liberty: http://www.lp.org Informix: http://www.iiug.org --------------------------------------------------