Re: Unix- HELP! Are we being bluffed?

watjep@emspo01.hasting.com ("Watje, Paul") writes: >Greg >You are being bluffed! I would find another local dealer, they >don't know there head from a hole in the ground. >:We are a multi-branch retail company, Buildware Market, in South Africa. >: We purchased Fourgen as the software to run our business, including >aspects. >:such >:as point-of-sale, financials, stock control, etc. We are in the process of >:implementing >:the software at our first branch. Fourgen is written in Informix, which >runs >:on Unix. >: >:Our local dealer assures us that several things we thought were possible >:are not possible. I'm not convinced, and I would appreciate some external >:opinion. >: >:We want to link our office LAN (Microsoft Win for Workgroups) to the >Fourgen >:system >:running on Unix. We are told that Win for Workgroups does not have >suitable >:terminal >:emulators to log in to the Unix box, and that we need to purchase terminal >:emulation >:software called I-Net for EACH PC on the LAN, at a cost of US$235 per PC. >:This sounds excessive. >They have it all wrong. The only time you need I-Net is for client/server >type >products, Powerbuilder, Infomaker, ERWin, etc. What you need is software >and hardware that allow you to talk to a Unix box normally. Cheapest >example, >but not a good on is a simple direct serial connection from the PC to the >Unix >box and a use a good terminal emulator, could be Windows or DOS based, and >the right type of serial cable. Could be expensive, get a good TCP/IP stack >for >windows, some Telnet software, and network card and telnet to the Unix box. >All you need is normal connectivity to the Unix box, Fourgen is character >based, we do it all the time. >:Furthermore, we are told that it is NOT possible to re-map keyboard keys. >:Currently, the >:Unix box uses F3 and F4 for Page up and Page down. We have purchased Wyse >:terminals >:that have a normal PC-style 101 key keyboard. We're told that we can not >:re-map >:the PgUp, PgDn, End, Home and other keys so that they would perform the >:functions one >:might expect in, say, a Windows application. This applies both to the dumb >:terminals as well >:as the PCs on the LAN. >The key mapping depends on the terminal/telnet software you buy, and if >you are willing to work with the informix termcap entries. >:Does FourGen have any GUI which can act as a front end to users on a >Windows >:network? >:Would X-Windows work with Fourgen & Informix? Are there any other ways to >:operate >:the Fourgen box via Windows? >I am not aware of a GUI front end for Fourgen, but I am not an expert on >there >products. Yes, X-windows works with Fourgen, but just as a xterm >charactered >based app, like the terminal/telnet software above. I am doing this >currently. I >use some windows based X windows software and it works fine. >:Another problem we have is that our Unix box operates VERY slowly. We have >a >:486DX2-66 >:with 36MB ram & VESA local bus, 128KB cache, a 2GB SCSI-drive with fast >SCSI >:controller, >:and a 2GB DAT streamer. We have the Informix Online engine, SCO Unix >:(the latest version, I'm not sure of the number), and the latest version of >:Fourgen Tools >:(I think it's 4.12). When we only have four users logged on, and we're >doing >:purchase orders, >:the system nearly grinds to a halt. Our item master consists of about 6000 >:stock items, and we >:have about 200 suppliers; so our database is not really that large. Why >:could the system be so >:slow? PLEASE help us with this, as we have to go live in about 2 weeks >:time!!! (20 July is LIVE date) >Our experience with fourgen was that the packages were slow, but there > were not any indices in the original system we got. But even after the >addition of indices, the process was still not as fast as we would have >liked. >:I have a further question: apparently a Unix drive can get fragmented just >:like a FAT drive can. >:How does one fix this? How does one tidy up all the fragments of mess that >:may be lying around? >Don't Know. >:Any help greatly appreciated, and if you're in South Africa, we'll invite >you >:to our opening party, >:which promises to be one to remember! >:Greg Frank If you are looking for a terminal-emulation program I can recomment MS-KERMIT. Beside that it is a communication package with the kermit protocol, it also has a excellent VT320 terminal emulation. And you can get it FREE. It is NOT a windows-program but it runs fine in a DOS-box. You can redefine EVERY key on the keyboard. It has build-in macro-language and runs on tcp/ip connections as well on serial lines. I'm using this program for some years now in accessing a UNIX-machine and running Informix-4gl programs. MS-KERMIT is available at www.columbia.edu ----------------------- Bernard Speekenbrink bernards@xs4all.nl -----------------------