Re: 4Js/Compiler for migration from 4GL to Windows/Unix

>Yes, it is impressive, but only to a limit which isn't mentioned. >It's still a server program, compiled and running on your Unix server. >You can not write MS Windows or Motif programs! The programs are run >via a very fancy "terminal emulator". It does give you buttons for on key >clauses and other purposes, but it is no Windows program. It's a fat server >solution. In the actual material we have seen are more then 70 % Database work in the Application and about 20 % display work. (In Graphic-Versions >80%). A analysis of the special Project would show the usability of the tool. We have just now more performance than Informix on a text Terminal and there is no way to have this with a fat client solution (network trafic..) with more than 5 users. The very fancy Terminal-Emulator is a complete enhanced port of Tcl/Tk to MS-Windows with extensions for speedup, networking, 32Bit, DDE, OLE, Palettes an so on. Ask Mr. Ousterhot book (complete book or comp.lang.tcl) about the 'terminal-emulator'. >Although this can bring you up in a kind of GUI world prety fast it would >not satisfy our users in the long term, not to speek of our developers. >What if we want to display a picture, a map the user can click on, a tabed >dialog box with all kinds of information, control another OLE application... We have implemented such things with simple extensions in the Form-Interface also user-programmable with Tcl/TK and 4Gl. >The day 4J implements a true MS Windows version (compiled under MS Windows) >with language extensions to handle true event driven programming, all >kinds of windows controls that are needed and application partitioning >(a NewEra look alike) I would be very interested. Their compiler technology >(optimisation of generated code) is much better than what I have seen from >Informix. Our idea was a 100% compatible System with enhancements. So we can use the old (and even the new) sources have one program for text-terminals and X and all Windows-Versions (incl Wind**95). The underlaying System can not change for all the Applications using the UNIX Environment (e.g. "run", "report to pipe", "load from " ) and i think this are all applications. If you want to start with an new development-system you can use all the available things (like Access/Foxpro/Dbase/NewEra/VisBasic/ ant thousend other), but what about your sources in 4GL, what about the performance with more then jut a few rows in the table, what about network traffic, what about administration of 10 PC's with hundreds of programs, what about the 386-25Mhz PC's ..... >The idea behind NewEra is a vastly much better one, although it's may be lacking. At it's >current standing the 4J compiler looks like a >complete dead end to us. We would have to do another conversion to real GUI >programs at some later time if we started using it. Of cource you have to move! - but to NewEra ? Even try one (1) application with our tool. ( I 'm very intrested where you have seen our Compiler/Runtime and whitch Version ) -- Peter Brueckner peter@tower.bj-ig.de Brueckner&Jarosch Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH, Erfurt 99084