Re: My new master -- Informix SE/c4gl

On 10 Oct 97 at 16:25, Nelson H. Fredsell wrote: > We currently use Informix SE as a repository for some > mission-critical reporting and data analysis. I am very > (< 2 months) new to Informix, and have been trying to > understand the benefits of the SE product, particularly > in relation to my primary database reference point: > Microsoft Access. The effort one must make to view > data using c4gl thru forms and reports seems herculean > compared to the less code-intensive MS-Access > environment. Well, yes, but trying to write anything *useful* in Access is also a pretty herculean task. :-) If you have a reasonably recent version of SE, you might be able to find an ODBC driver which will allow you to tie up your Access skills to your SE data. > Should I keep a heads-down approach with my new > Informix tools, put Access behind me, and see how I feel > about it in 6 months? Or should I consider developing a > GUI front-end (using MS-Access) via ODBC? I'm also > thinking of using Access as a utility to explore what is > going on with this Informix app (tables, relationships and > columns). The thing with 4GL is that you can do a hell of a lot more with it than you can with Access. GUI front ending the app is an option, but if people are happy with SE and 4GL, I would leave it at that. > Our company is very small (13 people) with definite expansion > plans. Our tables have fewer than 10,000 records, although as > we expand the scope of our app, a few tables might exceed > 100,000 records (historical data). This is where SE shines: I was gobsmacked the other day to see a site running 200 concurrent users with multi-gigabyte databases on SE. Some of the individual tables exceeded 1GB for the .dat files alone! -- Ciao, Billy Nose to the ear in Johannesburg -- Murder City never looked so good! Get FAQ'ed at http://www.iiug.org/techinfo/faq/faq_top.html PISCES Feb. 19 - Mar. 20 You have a vivid imagination and often think you are being followed by the FBI or CIA. You have minor influence over your friends and people resent you for flaunting your power. You lack confidence and are generally a coward. Pisces people screw small animals and pick their noses.