Feature creep

->From: aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) ->Subject: Re: Sorting Integer ->Date: 19 Feb 93 02:22:43 GMT ->Reply-To: aland@informix.com (Colonel Panic) ->Organization: Enterprise Technologies, Informix Software, Inc. -> ->In article <1m0d5dINN79m@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> alan@effluvia.den.mmc.com (Alan Popiel) writes: ->> ->>What version of Informix ISQL/ACE/engine/etc. are you running? I looked for ->>the TRUNC function in my 4.00 (and 4.10 supplement) manuals and did not see ->>it. Is it an ACE feature? I know you use ACE a lot, while I don't use it ->>at all. I see that Alan Denney tells us that MOD became available in v5.00 ->>of the engine. -> ->trunc() and round() are available in 4.1 or higher engines and are documented ->in the Informix Guide to SQL: Reference version 4.1, pp. 6-265 - 6-266. -> ->mod() doesn't seem to be documented in 5.0 but should be in 6.0. -> ->>I work on several platforms, running everything from 2.10.03F ISQL and ->>1.10.03F 4GL (both fossils), to 4.00 and 4.10 4GL running against 5.XX ->>engines. Feature creep is a real problem for me. I really like the BEFORE ->>MENU, HIDE OPTION, and SHOW OPTION available in 4.10 4GL, but when I tried ->>to port an application containing them to a system still running 4.00, it ->>died big time. -> ->These features are documented only in the 4.1 Supplement in the ->"4.1 Enhanced Statements" section. Was it unclear that these features ->were 4.1-specific? -> ->-- ->Alan Denney aland@informix.com {pyramid|uunet}!infmx!aland -> Disclaimer: Poster under influence of 1,3,7-trimethylxanthine -> ->"Fall not in love; it will stick to your face." -- Deteriorata Hello, Colonel Panic! General Confusion here. No, my problem was not with the documentation of the MENU features. I found them in the 4.10 4GL Supplement. I just forgot when the features arrived, since I work on different Informix release levels on different machines. My problem is really two-fold: 1. Feature creep in general: Maybe I don't understand the Informix release numbering scheme. It seems to me that the MENU option changes were a pretty major change, and thus I would expect them to first appear in some X.0, not X.1, release. Now I find out that a moderately large group of functions were also added at the 4.1 level. I would expect only minor changes in X.1, X.2, type releases; and I'd expect bug-fixes in X.1.1 or X.1.1ud3 type releases. But as I said, maybe I just don't understand the numbering scheme. I call it "feature creep" because new capabilities creep in at peculiar release levels, instead of in some more understandable manner as described in the prior paragraph. 2. Document set: I have I4GL Reference Manuals (2 vols.), I4GL User Guide, ISQL Reference Manual, and ISQL User Guide. I do NOT have "Guide to SQL: Reference". Why does Informix have this third type of manual? I understand the different purposes served by the User Guide and Reference Manual. But why have this hybrid (at least in name) "Guide to ... Reference"????? +------------------------------+---------------------------------------+ | R. Alan Popiel | Internet: alan@den.mmc.com | | Martin Marietta, LSC | ( Please note: My opinions do not ) | | P.O. Box 179, M/S 5422 | ( represent official Martin policy. ) | | Denver, Colorado 80201-0179 | Voice: 303-977-9998 | +------------------------------+---------------------------------------+