Re: Visual Cafe nixes Jworks?

In article <33456FB9.1B58@echonyc.com>, Cosmo Lee <cosmo@echonyc.com> wrote: >That's a very interesting press release. So what does this say about >the future of Jworks? If Informix is going to align w/ Symantec for >Visual Cafe, why would we need Jworks? For some reason, this dicussion doesn't seem to have made it to the Informix news server yet, so I'll answer from my personal account. If you check out the March 31 press release regarding the Universal Tools strategy, you'll notice something of an explanation: "INFORMIX-Data Director for Java (formerly INFORMIX-JWorks)..." That's it, folks. INFORMIX-Data Director for Java _is_ INFORMIX-JWorks. Marketing decided to change the name. This happens occasionally -- JWorks wasn't the original name either. If it's any comfort, even the engineers working on the project occasionally can't remember the current name du jour. The key here is that Informix is delivering an add-in product that enables top-notch support for INFORMIX-Universal Server in non-Informix development environments. While the various language flavors of INFORMIX-Data Director do share a common architecture, they will not necessarily share common implementation. We would rather take on a little extra work and provide a solution which takes advantage of the strengths of each language/environment than provide a "lowest common denominator" solution. (For example, while Java programs could probably make use of the COM components in INFORMIX-Data Director for Visual Basic, this probably wouldn't satisfy customers who need a "pure" Java solution). Within a language space, we expect that INFORMIX-Data Director will be useable by any development language. However, some environments may have tighter integration with INFORMIX-Data Director than others -- Symantec's Visual Cafe is one example of an environment that will have a higher level of integration. FYI, the "Data Director" product line does not spell the end of INFORMIX-NewEra. INFORMIX-NewEra will include the equivalent features, but since we own the language we don't need to package a separate add-in. Our aim is to ensure that developers can seamlessly access INFORMIX-Universal Server in whatever language and whatever tools they prefer to use. ObDisclaimer: I work for Informix, but I'm not an official spokesperson (I'm in R&D, not marketing). While I'm relatively sure that I've accurately described Informix's position, my statements should be construed as only my opinion, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Informix Software Inc. or any of it's subsidiaries, relatives, dogs, pet rocks, etc. -- Eric McDermid