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

> jw@adasoft.ch (Jamie Watson) writes: > In article <47lhuh$15n@Dortmund.Germany.EU.net> Brueckner <peter> writes: > > > >Since september there is an new product in the market that gives > >the abitlity to translate the original Informix-4GL code (without any changes) > >with an compiler which is 100% compatible to the original one. > > > >The advantage of this Compiler is, that it comes with a complete graphical > >solution for Windows (much better than 4Gl for Windows) and X11 based on > >Tcl/Tk. > > I would like to add a more or less impartial comment about this software. > Last week we (Adasoft) had someone come and install this software on one > of our systems. I am amazed at how good this thing really is - we have > a fairly large application, 150,000+ lines of 4gl code, and I am able to > compile it all without modification. It runs on character mode terminals, > X11 terminals and workstations, and Windows 95 PCs. They have done a very > good job of implementing things under X11 and Windows that obviously took > quite a bit of thought, and quite a bit of development effort. Even the > C-language routines that are called from 4gl require only small changes, > and the changes don't interfere with compiling the same source code in > the "traditional" way with 4gl. > > I am very, very impressed with this product. I just wish that Informix > had done something like this a long time ago, instead of blundering about > with their efforts and producing nothing that we could use. 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. 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... 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. The idea behind NewEra is a vastly much better one, although it's implementation 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. Nils.Myklebust@ccmail.telemax.no NM-data, Dalsbergstien 7, N-0170 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company