Re: InformixLink

In article <22jna7INNe3r@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> ckipp@vth1.vth.colostate.edu (Cathy Kipp) writes: >For those of you who have asked for InformixLink to be hooked up to the >internet: > >I attended the Customer Services Birds of a Feather session at the >Informix Worldwide Users Conference. Several people made the request >that InformixLink be hooked up to the Internet. The head of customer >services said (after repeated requests) he will consider this. As a point of clarification, what I understood Jim Hendrickson, Informix's VP for Customer Services, to say was that they would investigate giving people the ability to telnet/rlogin to InformixLink from the Internet. Presumably, the interface would be the vanilla TTY one. It would be clever for someone to write a TCP/IP-based *Link client, like those that exist for archie, gopher, etc. Maybe somebody has. However, my impression is that GEIS or someone keeps a tight clamp on the source. They will gladly "customize" it for big $$$. During some opening remarks, Jim gave part of the slide presentation that went with the track session on customer support. One of the slides listed the InformixLink facilities that you get with each level of support. He mentioned in passing that some of the ones in the "free" part (for maintenance customers) had been added very recently, but I don't recall which ones - sorry. It would probably be worth checking out. Several other things of note related to InformixLink transpired at the conference. Trina Clickner, Project Manager for InformixLink, announced that Informix will be setting up free InformixLink accounts for local and regional user groups to help them communicate with each other. One liaison from each group will get a full-view account. If your local group hasn't heard about this, contact Informix. We also discussed possible ways of better integrating the InformixLink and Internet communities. We're looking for facilities for sharing resources that will provide real benefits, yet won't be a logistical nightmare to administer. One relatively straightforward thing will be to publicize on InformixLink the fact that full-view subscribers can participate in discussions in this newsgroup via e-mail by joining the Informix mailing list. At least it's a start. In talking with the people who are tasked with overseeing InformixLink, it's clear that they are genuinely interested in making it useful, and successful. However, several questions come to mind, directed more at Informix as a whole. What is Informix trying to accomplish with InformixLink? Is InformixLink as presently structured the best way to do it? When Informix finally gets directly on the Internet, what services will they provide, and how will they relate to those available on InformixLink? As you might suspect, I have some thoughts on those subjects, but I'll save them for a later post. If you have any related questions or comments, I'd like to hear them. Thanks, Walt. -- Walt Hultgren Internet: walt@rmy.emory.edu (IP 128.140.8.1) Emory University UUCP: {...,gatech,rutgers,uunet}!emory!rmy!walt 954 Gatewood Road, NE BITNET: walt@EMORY Atlanta, GA 30329 USA Voice: +1 404 727 0648