Re: Informix & Delphi

Ttgchicago wrote: > > Hey all - I was just wondering if anyone out there has done any extensive > Delphi programming. We have a customer who's looking put a front end on > an Informix DB and werent convinced about NewEra (No jokes from the peanut > gallery please!) > Can't blame them. I used New Era from 1.0 to 2.20. I really hated that experience, much worse that my stint with Powerbuilder 3.0. I convinced our group to ditch it in favor of VisualAge for Smalltalk (Delphi came in second). > I had a few specific questions: > > 1) Hows the responce time with the client/server version? I haven't used the client/server version of Delphi, only the developer(?) version with ODBC. Surprise, surprise! Delphi w/ODBC looked much faster than New Era with a native Informix driver. Don't ask me why because I haven't got a clue. On one of our systems, the difference in performance (as well as, ahem, stability) was big enough that the prototype we built using Delphi was used as the production version instead of the intended New Era production. > 2) Are there extra costs such as run-time liscenses w/Delphi? None that I know of. > 3) How extensive is the language comparred to others? (VB being the lowest > and C++ being the highest) Don't know what you mean exactly. Anyway, Delphi uses Object Pascal. I know that there are many folks out there that hate Pascal. But, Object Pascal is pretty decent as far as I am concerned. Besides, (I believe) it is much easier to learn than C++. > 4) Can you do QueryByExample? (Query on each field in a window ... can the > queries use wildcards?) Nope. At least, not as easily as Informix 4GL(?) does it. But, there exist third-party tools that will give you the same functionality. > 5) Is it really just a C-based language with a pretty front end? (Does it > use a pre-compiler to generate C++ code?) > 6) Does it use a 4GL language ... How similar to Informix-4GL is the > non-OO code? See my reply to (3) above. > 7) Hows the learning curve if youve worked with other similar packages? Learning Delphi was a breeze for quite a number of people I know. > 8) What additional tools/classes should I purchase if I were to begin > programming in Delphi tomorrow. Aside from the third-party QBE, none. > 9) Which other tools should I consider INSTEAD of Delphi (NewEra and Java > excluded) Can I say VisualAge for Smalltalk? > 10) Any additional input would be appreciated! > > Thanx in advance > > Bob Jun Nolasco nolasco@inx.net