Re: Informix vs. Oracle

In article <1992Aug27.224948.22327@risky.ecs.umass.edu> mathews@bones.ecs.umass.edu (Mathew J Mathews) writes: >Thanks for all the replies and postings. > >I have compiled a list of the comments mailed to me, if anyone is interested >I can post it. The replies were mostly in favor of Oracle. Actually, >he score is about -- > > Oracle: A gazillion ^^^^^^^^^^^ BUGS? Thats a conservitave estimate. > Informix: 1 Because Orifice is ported to a multitude of platforms and Informix is limited to DOS/Unix there is a FAR wider business audience (along with the suit-n-tie "image" marketing approach Orifice has used) I have done extensive work in both RDBMS systems, and my opinion is that Oracle is a great product for people that like to wear suits and ties, draw flow charts, use buzzwords, have a *long* project developement cycle, and maintain an extensive DP staff to meet the reporting needs.) if you need to actually get something *done* use Informix. UNLESS Oracle has changed DRASTICLY in the past 6 months, its an overcomplex menagerie of dis-associated products.. Their forms package does NOT communicate to their report writing package Their "procedural" SQL cannot be used for OUTPUT, only program variables or TABLE data. Outwardly, that "simple, ez to use, etc" forms package looks *slick* now try a *real* task with it and spend a lifetime debugging your triggers. And oh yeah you'll need a *seperate* set of screens to drive those reports. Orifice controls a lot of things for the developer transparently which seems neat until you realize what its doing is absolutely bass-ack- wards to what you need to do. (conditional depending..) Orifice *does* have a *superb* set of extensions to their SQL implementation, a lot of reporting can be run from straight sql scripts, but if you need something procedural in nature your hosed without doing a bunch of temp tables first and then doing reporting. Informix, to the Oracle bigot, seems crude, but in reality is a far easier environment in which to get *real* tasks done, can be written to do nearly anything concievable (4gl) by anyone who has ever used any kind of a programming language. Thats not to say one couldn't do a lot in Orifice too, but,,,, its sold as an environment requiring *less* technical people and in reality thats just not true. When the layoff came from my last employer I resolved myself to find Informix work and NOT Oracle, yet Oracle was what I first learned on and certainly offered more work oppurtunities. These opinions are mine although I have found them to be shared by many deve- lopers who have worked with both products. They do not nessicarily represent the opinions of my company. Don "Oracle. just say NO" Bolton