Re: New Era, is it any good?

> adamg@interconnect.com.au (Adam Green) writes: > 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? > >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 NewEra is as far as we can see a very good tool, basically, but it does have some significant deficiencies that needs to be fixed. Here is a list of the worst deficiencies: Its lack of support for now standard MS Windows user interface controls. Examples are multiple doucument interface, tabed dialog boxes (to some extent the same thing), OLE2 and more. MDI is NOT going away, as some Informix people tried to claim at the last Informix user conference. Not very soon at least. The very old fashioned user interface in the development environement. (Look at VB, Delphi and others for how it could, and by now must, be done.) It slows down our programming speed, and it doesn't show unexperienced Windows programers what a Windows program should look like. The lack of true and full support for VBX's and OCX's. This was promiced at last years user conference, but we have heard nothing about it since. You MUST understand how important this is! In our applications we need: a. Calendars with 5 different user interfaces. b. Maps where the user can click on an area (a state in the US or equivalent in other contries) to get detailed information from the database, either directly on the map, in a list or by some other means. c. Outline control with different options as to how the otline should look on screen (vertial, horizontal, pictures for open and closed parts++). d. Many other specialized controls. We neither want nor can write all these ourselves. They are available as VBX's and/or OCX's at low cost including no runtime fees. When can you deliver this - properly implemented - fully supported to the latest and full spesifications? Full OLE2 support is becoming equally important. I realize the problems this would give you (and us) with portability to X-Windows/Motif. The answer: We couldn't care less. What you should do is include full support for these MS Windows tools in the Windows version. If we use them we accept that we can't port to Motif. If they are not used porting to Motif should be no problem. Informix must understand the importance of the user interface. Nils.Myklebust@ccmail.telemax.no NM-data, Dalsbergstien 7, N-0170 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company