Re: Informix 4GL. A Future?

Hi Tim. As far the the subject of this thread is concerned - I would expect that Informix-4GL still has a future since there is little to take its place at this time. We have been trying to evaluate NewEra For Windows but it has been rough going. The documentation and installation are very bad (some of the worse I have seen and absolutely the worse for a product that costs this much). My recommenation would be to evaluate NewEra if you can get a 60 day free evaluation. I certainly wouldn't pay any money for it until you are satisfied that you can deal with the product. Access and Delphi are reasonable products and can satisfy a broad set of application needs but have their limitations. However, I wouldn't vouch for the Informix ODBC connectivity links for either product. They are both really designed and tested for SQL Server (Microsoft and Sybase) and Oracle. For more complex applications I would probably look to Uniface as a possibility though I cannot vouch for Version 6 (version 5.1is where I have all of my references). Of course Informix-4GL and ESQL-C are proven solutions - albeit getting a bit old. As far as NewEra is concerned I think Informix has to get a whole lot more serious about usability and correctness (the documentation contradicts itself, is missing books, confusing, and does not mimic the actual installation). It is a real mess. It looks like they reached for the shelf and pulled any manual they could find off of it and then slapped them together and called it a "package" which they could charge a whole lot of dollars for. This may be a serious product - but it requires a very serious user who is willing to spend the time, energy, and money to wade through Informix's lackluster effort. My guess is that Oracle's PowerObjects will sell more packages in one hour than NewEra has sold since its introduction. And for good reason. It is a matter of seriousnesses and concern on the vendor's part. In article <3mr8l4$7mc@tequesta.gate.net> tschaefe@gate.net (Tim Schaefer) writes:>From: tschaefe@gate.net (Tim Schaefer) >Subject: Re: Informix 4GL. A Future? >Date: 16 Apr 1995 14:12:52 GMT >In article <D70vI6.AI4@news.nsw.CSIRO.AU>, peter@prospect.anprod.csiro.au says: >>Only thing worries me is the price. Delphi is selling for $AUS 350. NewEra >>is $AUS 6100. Is NewEra 20 times better? I have one of my colleagues >>looking at Delphi....just in case. 'Course, as Delphi is in Pascal, that's >>2 strikes against it to start :) (Don't bother flaming my language biases; >>I know they're a religious issue and all the facts in the world won't >>alter it:) ) >> >>Peter Wiley >Peter and everyone, >Check out Access 2.0 as well as these others...The price should be most >attractive, allowing many folks wandering into Windows data base programming >a look at what MS is offering. Even if you don't go MS, at least look at it. >I don't want to slam New Era--that's not the intent. But in evaluating Access >2.0 and Delphi you might get a better idea of what you should expect for the >price. >At US $119.00, for the 'upgrade', it really is nice. The key is scalability. >As to performance, well, I'm still evaluating it. Does it fit big shops and >big data? Don't know at this time,and it's too early in my evaluation to say >what some of the other limitations are, which are sure to be there--just >haven't found them yet. >If I didn't know any better I'd swear it looks a lot like New Era--all I >can compare is what I saw in the New Era video and Viewpoint demo. If Access >2.0 is any indication of what's to come, New Era could be in trouble. >Two important features I find in this product are the forms editor, and the >"ISQL"-like SQL interface, allowing scratch-pad SQL. This feature wasn't >available in the 1.0 or 1.10 product, so evidently MS is responding to >someone's product offerings. I must say again, this isn't product >slamming/spamming, but an informational posting to help folks understand >the issues. You can't evaluate INFORMIX products in a vacuum. To be sure, >check 'em out. >-- > \\\\|// > (o o) >==============================---o00--(_)--00o---============================ >Tim Schaefer http://www.gate.net/~tschaefe >The Computer Business Company, Inc. tschaefe@gate.net >Coconut Creek, FL, USA DILLIGAF! > See, a good thing sells itself... --Ross Perot >============================================================================= Richard Finkelstein, Performance Computing, Inc.