Re: Good User Guides for Informix Online DS 7.23 and NewEra

On 2 Jan 98 at 22:59, Mike Segel wrote: } Billy Wheeler wrote something for a serious discussion: } } > } Even if it is not *static*, C code is extremely simple. Heck, } > } they even teach it in some high schoolsthese days. :-) Keep in } > } mind that one should not have to have obfuscated code or } > } pointers to arrays of pointers to structures in one's business } > } code. } > } > But then what's the point of using C? :-) <HUMOR> OK, Mike, the above was a joke. Let me explain: "what's the point of using C if you can't have obfuscated code or pointers to arrays of pointers to structures in one's business code." :-) </HUMOR> } > } As far as being static, even if you write it in any language, } > } you will still have to maintain it. However if you write it in } > } C, the odds are you will only have to maintain one copy of code. } > } Both 4GL and New Era can access the C code. So you have multiple } > } platform support, which New Era no longer provides. You can even } > } access the code from other languages/environments as well. } > } > My point is based on a great deal of painful experience -- C is a } > lot harder to maintain than a 4GL or NewEra code base. } } No, not really. I guess, since I've had to write everything from } 6502, 6809 assembler, to C, etc....code is code. Thats what RCS, CVS } are made for. Of course, having a good debuging environment helps. } :-) Well, even NewEra's debugger is better than most UNIX C debuggers... :-) } The point I am trying to make though is that if you have re-usable } code, that is on different platforms and different apps, then C } becomes the best language. (Can you say N.E. is not portable?) Oh sure: "N.E. is not portable". Except that the server component is already ported to most of the servers you would want to use anyway. I for one would certainly not want to run my application using an Apple II as a server. :-P } > } Perhaps. Of course, its a third party product and blows away the } > } *one* vendor theory. :-)Delegation can exist within the AFCL } > } versus } > } > Well, the AFCL was written by a third party as well, and AFAIK is } > unsupported by Informix. At least NEWT was written by an } > ex-Informix employee... :-) } } I always thought it was sold with the N.E. code. The problem was } that Informix vendorgot together and wrote their object class } library without understanding what they were doing. NEWT seems like } a second generation. Yep. } I guess you could create an application level of objects which would } handle the application interface with the OS. Then the root windows } would merely fall in below the application level in the messaging } hierarchy. Delegation could be added in to the root object so that } all objects will inherit it. (I think you can do this without having } to change the language at all. ) Informix, are you listening? } But this all seems to skip an important question when dealing with } NE as a useful language. First, it only runs on Windblows. This may } not seem important, but you no longer have the portability that 4GL } had accross multiple platforms. Not true. You can only *develop* on Windoze. But it still runs on lots of things. } Second, lets look at the competition. Java, Delphi, OpenStep, } Access, VB/VC++, CDE, TK/TCL, add your other favorites here. Based } on the costs of learning the language and the potential market, Java } makes the most sense. Java skill sets will cost the same, however, } they will allow one to write and support applications from embedded } systems, to real time trading systems, or home banking systems. (Or } even turn your phone into an ATM machine. :-) Of course Java will } also run on the big iron too. Well, most of those things don't scale well or at all. The syntax of NewEra is the same as 4GL (more or less) and the pain of learning NE is pretty much limited to the pain of learning to think object, rather than procedural. } So, that's the other problem with N.E. as a tool, its out classed by } its competition. There is no edge to using it. At least with 4GL, it } was easy, somewhat portable, and you could write reports to do } anything. Mmmm... } And what ever happened to the Spice Girls?Put on too much weight for } ya? :-) [Or is the wife reading this over your shoulder?] Yes, they rested their, um, on my shoulder... :-) -- Ciao, Billy Back at the gold-face in sunny Gauteng... Informix FAQ @ http://www.iiug.org/techinfo/faq/faq_top.html Drivel @ http://www.west.co.za/tasteless/