Re: Windows development Tools

david@inform.co.nz (David Paulo) wrote: :What Nils writes here is very interesting to me as we are pondering this :ourselves, but as yet we have not done anything beyond reading the :various articles that are flooding the press. : :I currently have the impression that there are two approaches to developing :in Java, 1) As applets and 2) as a normal application a'la New Era, Delphi etc. : :The first option allows you to deploy as a Web application that will run on a :browswer - thin client, nothing to install but a browser and all those :desirable things, but can you realistically design a major app in that way Yes, but there are of course some user interface issues. You also have an additional issues of constantly changing web browsers where there still are several bugs in the Java VM. : and :as far as I can tell you lose a lot of control over form layout etc. When you program in Java there is no significant loss of form layout control in an applet. As opposed to a HTML form a Java applet will take up a fixed space in the browser window. Within that window your Java program is in full control. You never (or hardly ever) use HTML forms with Java programs. : not to :mention having to deal with a transient connection. The connections will not be any more transient with a Java applet in a browser than with a self contained Java program. :With Option two, can you still deploy on thin clients i.e. is it still possible :to have the app resident on the server? Yes and no. First you can obviously load the stand alone Java program via a normal shared file on the server. If you have no file server (or don't want to use it) you need some small Java program installed on each workstation. This can load further classes from a server. Obviously it can also communicate (via sockets, RMI, CORBA or other means) with server based Java (or other) objects. :With Informix promising to generate Java code form New Era I am asking myself :if we should continue with New Era or plan a complete migration to Java. I have heard some very vague roumors that Informix have thought of generating Java code from NewEra, but I sure wouldn't hold my breath. I think this roumor comes more from the plan Informix once had to create a Java development tool themselves. This was going to be based on the NewEra development environement, but generate Java code. That did not include translating NewEra code as far as I know. This tool has luckily also been abandoned, and instead they have made a strategic cooperation with Symantec so their Cafe and Visual Cafe can be used effectively with Informix databases. This also includes that an Informix database engine (the OWS perhaps?) will be shipped with Visual Cafe. (See press release at the Informix and Symantec web sites.) If you allready are developing in NewEra and have some substantial ammount of code written the best bet for now would probably be to continue using it. Then you could test and evaluate Java as the new tools around it become available. :Any comments and thoughts on this? Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org