Re: NewEra, is it any good?

In article <3qevlq$q39@news.midland.co.nz>, Kellettp@ihug.co.nz says... > >In article <bash.069x@bash.demon.co.uk>, Bashir Akram <bash@bash.demon.co.uk> says: >> >>Whats NewEra like these days? >>Which version are Informix up to? >>Is it any good? >>Major bugs? >>Good development enviroment? >>When is the next version out? should be much better? >> >>How does it compare with VB? > >Can't say I'm an expert but I've been on the course and understand the >major competitors eg VB, Gupta, PB, CDE 2 etc. I also don't work for any of >the vendors. Well, I do work for Informix but I agree with the gist of what's said here, with the following exceptions. > >It's version 1.xx and a pretty good version one. It's more like a version >two in terms of robustness and speed. It has a good structure - is rather >clunky (user interface) in places - is a strong foundation - upgradeability from Informix 4Gl is >not strong - it integrates well with Windows - as you go thru it you Upgrade from INFORMIX-4GL is extremely solid and complete. Under close examination, NewEra _is_ 4GL. receive >the impression that they've copied features from a lot of other tools. >Has reasonable OO by 4GL GUI tool standards - is still only an early >version and will probably need two mor major versions to be a real >industrial strength tool. Netx major version is out Q3/Q4 this yr I Informix is cooperating with other vendors to deliver tools immediately - viz. Intersolv (ODBC and PVCS), Lotus (Notes), Versant (repository) et al. As for 'industrial strength', in Australia we recently put a 500 user corporate application into product at Telecom - it's a mainstay application controlling Telecom's project management teams. >think - all sorts of goodies promised - would rather wait to see them >before I comment. > >Overall a good development environment with one or two horrendously >irritating deficiencies. > Fair enough - every product has a down sidd. Which NewEra deficiencies do you see as its worst? I'd suggest the lack of an object repository browser as its most fundamental deficiency. Problems like the 'ordinary' window painter are transient. I've just starting using version 1.1 and the improvements are well received. In short, 1.1 improves desktop integration, GUI control, version and config management (through PVCS) etc, plus a handful of bug fixes. Adam >VB is,in my book, a very good tactical dev tool with excellent prototyping >which has problems scaling up. To my mind New Era is aimed at a larger project >market than VB. It is starting with the intention of being a serious development >tool. I don't see them as comparable tools - they overlap but are intended for >different marketplaces. > >Paul Kellett > >Keep it Simple Ltd (NZ)