Re: 4GL core dump

Path: emory!samsung!cs.utexas.edu!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!mks.com!john From: john@mks.com (John Postma) Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix Message-ID: <1991Nov7.191331.17084@mks.com> Date: 7 Nov 91 19:13:31 GMT References: <1991Nov2.051551.6084@ipars.cts.com> Organization: Mortice Kern Systems Inc., Waterloo, Ontario, CANADA In article <1991Nov2.051551.6084@ipars.cts.com> scotto@ipars.cts.com (Scott O'Connell) writes: > >A little over a year ago I upgraded my 4GL, SQL and SE database development >products to 4.00.UE1. The software was running under SCO Xenix 2.3.2. > .... > >I just renewed my support and should be able to call tech support next >week. In the mean time I was wondering: > > a) is technical support any better than they were a year ago? > b) is this the latest version of 4GL for SCO Xenix (or Unix)? > c) is there a workaround for this bug? > I am not familiar with your particular problem, but I do have a couple of comments to respond to your questions. a) Informix Tech Support -- It has been my experience that their tech support has gotten WORSE over the past year. I make very few calls, but when I feel I must I am without fail put on hold, and have to leave a message which is then returned a few days later or so. If it's something you really have to talk to someone about right away... good luck! The last time I was in this situation I decided to wait through the elevator music, I found-out that after 5-10 minutes they give you a non_tech rep to take a message, if you decide to keep waiting you are put freshly back into the queue and lose your place (no way of avoiding this), so it could take a very looong time to get someone, it took me almost a half hour of waiting. As far as quality of tech support, I suppose it's as good as can be expected. Most of the time you have the tech rep has to work on the problem and get back to you, or have a senior rep whose been working there more than 6 months get back to you. .... well, I got that off my chest, but you asked.... b) We run SunOS (a BSD UNIX for Sun's and Solbourn's) and the latest is 4.1 -- already released and being run by many. I have found a few quirky things that have changed. For instance, the dbload utility now only accepts the 'delimiter' key-word in lower case, even though the manuals show examples in upper case. Another is that the set clause of the update does not allow the attribute to be prefixed by the relation's name -- it bombs with some weird 'cannot read message file error' which tells nothing of the actual problem. Other than these few things, it seems fairly good as far as backward compatability goes. I know these comments may be quite critical, but actually I do like using Informix 4GL and ISQL and would recommend it. I just feel there are definitely some areas that could use some improvements. -- /|| // // ,'/""\\' John Postma john@mks.com (519)884-2251 / ||/// //\\' `\\\\\\ Database Administrator, Mortice Kern Systems Inc. / |/ /_// \\\\___/ 35 King St. N., Waterloo, Ont., Can. N2J 2W9 o/ "Things are only impossible until they're not!" -- Capt Jean Luc Picard