Re: NewEra market (was Re: Reply)

>> I wonder whether Informix will let NewEra die on the vine like they >> did with Wingz/Hyperscript ... my opinion is that Informix does not >> know how to compete in the PC software market Wingz/Hyperscript was a product that was acquired by Informix as part of the merger with Innovative Software. It was a spreadsheet that competed directly with Lotus and Microsoft. You are right: Informix is not in the shrink-wrap software business, and although Wingz was a great product, we could not compete effectively in this business. NewEra is not a shrink-wrap, mass-produced tool like Visual Basic or Powerbuilder. It is a professional object-oriented programming language for developing database-based business applications. There are other tools that compete in a similar market, including Visual Age, Forte, and many others. Just because it runs on a PC does not mean it's intended for the mass market. It's not the sort of tool that you want to give away to millions of people, because they would not know what to do with it. It is intended for professional programmers who know or are willing to learn object-oriented programming. 4GL was not a mass-market tool either, but it was very successful. >> The key to frontend development tools >> is having many - many programmers coding with the product and >> creating more add-in tools. Any C++ class library is an "add in" tool for NewEra. We already use a number of class libraries, including one for Lotus Notes and the graphics class library from Hyperscript. >Informix should also include support for VBX's as just about any other >GUI development company is providing. This will be supported by the end of the year. > -- =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Randall Rhea Systems Engineer Informix Software randall@informix.com