Re: Reference Books?
Bar None! Get a copy of Informix Personal Edition to go with the book by Lumbley! By far IDS-PE is the smoothest install, slickest software from Informix I've seen, none of the typical NT "isms" that make any Windows product suck. The limitations of the Win95/98 environment were very deftly worked around, it even has a user authenticate tool to "add" on user accounts on a system that really has no user accounts. As for day in and day out use.. I've found the book "Informix Basics" a good reference, and the free "Informix Unleashed" pdf book good, as well as the free Chptr 13 from O'Reilly's "UNIX Backup and Recovery" great. The hard part about Informix was getting a clear picture of where this company/product was/is/going. Informix was the "premiere" UNIX/Windows database server.. they had the "best" tools available, then took some detour into very confusing territory and started a "rename-a-thon". Look, its simple: There are about 3 versions of the product: 7.X Basic database 8.X Basic database with parallel query 9.X Basic database plus Object Oriented Goop Red Breck A break with tradition, new technology, mega-database Cloudscape Totally new product, JVM database program The really hard thing to grasp is that these are "not" "revisions" or "upgrades" of one product. For all intents and purposes they are completely different, concurrent, product lines. Upgrade to Informix "means" to move from one product line to another. I think "upgrade" is synonymous with "scale" to them. In my way of thinking, "Upgrade" is to move from an older product to an improved version of the same product. In Informix terminology that's going from 7.22 to 7.30 to 7.31 of the "same" product line. Eventually a product line peiters out and becomes "desupported" so you have to keep track of the current support status. So for example someday 7.X will no longer be sold, and you'll only be able to buy 9.X.. but they seem to make adjustments in their pricing to accomodate the "encouraged" switch in product line. 7.X, 8.X, and 9.X are similar enough to one another that if you learn 7.X and then switch or "Upgrade" to 8.X or 9.X you don't loose that familar knowledge, you just gain a new set of enhanced features. Red brick and Cloudscape are the exceptions to this and require retraining, or new training to use. IDS-PE is based on 7.X technology, so its a basic database. The toolsets have also be in a state of confusion. First they had a great set of Windows based tools that looked like the ones with Microsoft SQL, Lumbley discusses these, then they fell back on the old console/command line set, then went on a strange detour into web enabled .cgi scripts, then detoured into Java space, and now seem all over the map. IDS-PE comes with the Windows tools in a tight unified fashion, setup takes about 5 minutes and it only asks one question. Most of the console/command line tools are there, and the help files are actually "well" helpful. ROM was a split of the IDS-PE toolset into a seperate product that didn't go well. The mismatch in skill sets between setting up a server on a server platform (different OS) and windows left a lot of users twisting in the wind and hanging in the dark.. the documentation was also somewhat lacking. Then a splinter of DBA tools was released, and a DataBlade API appeared popularizing Visual Basic development, and web integration, the multi-pronged attack was confusion extrodinaire as well. Don't get me wrong Informix is a great product and company, we use them and like the product, the approach to marketing and presenation as a solution could use some work though. The best thing that ever happened was when we got our hands on IDS-PE from a kind soul.. it explained soooooo much! Though it dates from 1995 its still the best PR package we ever got from Informix. None of the current docs, press material or toolsets impress the IT directors more than the IDS-PE package.. it's like a PowerPoint Press kit all in one.. finally you can describe what your trying to do with the big iron! Sure wish they would re-release it as demo or eval-ware.. it could only help their public image. Lotsa luck.. Informix really is a great value. At 03:46 AM 6/22/00 -0700, you wrote: >I just spent a week on a IDS course and the book they >recommended was "Informix DBA Survival Guide" by Joe Lumbley > >I got it and its pretty useful (so far!) > >See >http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0130796239/o/qid=9616708 >62/sr=8-2/026-1138721-0043654 > >for more info. > >HTH, Cheers. > >"Kirk Davis" <kirk@kirkdavis.co.uk> wrote: >>Can anyone reccomend a good Informix reference? I have been >told Informix >>Unleashed is one of the best, any comments??? >> >>Cheers, >>Kirk >> >> >> >> > > >Got questions? Get answers over the phone at Keen.com. >Up to 100 minutes free! >http://www.keen.com > > > =================================================== John Willis Microcomputer support Internet Publishing Technologies Group TXU Communications icq : 47700679 web : www.txucom.com, www.johntwillis.com, www.onslate.com email: jwillis@lcc.net Phone: 409.788.7523 FAX : 409.788.7566 this is my digital finger print: C219 3E66 C570 9CFF B0C4 A947 01C5 A0B3 6173 34B9 ===================================================