IIUG - 4GL Version 7.2 Press Release

On behalf of the IIUG Advocacy Program, I am pleased to be able to share this press release from Informix about a new release of Informix 4GL and a renewed commitment to the product in general. The enclosed is an edited version of the full press release. I have removed a lot of the heavy-duty marketing fluff. The full release can be viewed on the IIUG web site at http://www.iiug.org/advocacy/4gl_72.html. Carlton Doe Director, IIUG Advocacy Program carlton@iiug.org INFORMIX REVITALIZES 4GL APPLICATION DEVELOPMENT TOOLS Continued Commitment Addresses Global Deployment, Performance and Year 2000 Solutions MENLO PARK, Calif., (May 5, 1998) - Informix Corporation today announced its newest release of the INFORMIX(r)-4GL Product Family. This announcement reaffirms the Company's commitment to Informix Value Added Resellers and Developers, by focusing on their needs and making the most of their 4GL application investments. "We're very committed to the 4GL Product Family," said Mike Saranga, Senior Vice President, Product Management and Development, Informix. "We continue to experience strong market demand and see long term business viability for these tools, as evidenced by the success of our Tools Business Unit in this market. Informix is committed to the continued development of our 4GL product line, to increase the power and flexibility of 4GL, and to further support our customers and partners." INFORMIX-4GL 7.2 delivers several new features requested by the Informix VAR and developer community. Developers can now deploy a single application to the world market, leveraging the 4GL Global Language Support (GLS) deployment platform. DBCENTURY provides a fast and reliable solution to "Year 2000" (Y2K) risks, and a simple upgrade path for applications which were initially coded to support two digit year fields. Additionally, the new release provides improved performance, ensuring more responsive business applications. An important benefit to any multinational organization or reseller is the introduction of full Global Language Support (GLS). GLS supports full localization of INFORMIX-4GL 7.2 applications, so they are now capable of handling the different languages, cultural conventions and code sets for Asian, European, Latin American and Middle Eastern countries. GLS offers Informix developers the ability to develop, manage and deploy applications worldwide. Another important new feature is support for DBCENTURY. While all Informix products are Year 2000 compliant, meaning that the use or occurrence of the dates on or after January 1, 2000, will not adversely affect the performance of Informix products with respect to four-digit date dependent data, many users must fix applications which were written with two digit year date fields. To provide an alternative to rewriting these applications, Informix has introduced DBCENTURY. This feature allows developers to choose a method for extending dates without the need to re-code their applications. DBCENTURY delivers a reliable solution for upgrading these applications, for a fraction of the cost and in a fraction of the time. Another enhancement, delivered specifically to increase performance, is the inclusion of the latest client libraries. Whether it is to decrease query time, or maximize hardware performance and investment, INFORMIX-4GL 7.2 is the fastest release to date.