Re: WingZ

Posted in 1992

Walt Hultgren {rmy} — Mon, 10 Feb 92 10:55:44 -0500 — source: Informix-list mailing list archive (1991-1998)

Path: emory!europa.asd.contel.com!uunet!mcsun!corton!genethon!stuart From: stuart@genethon.fr (Stuart Pook) Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix Message-ID: <1992Feb10.113456@genethon.fr> Date: 10 Feb 92 10:34:56 GMT References: <MTan.5@uci.edu> Sender: news@genethon.fr Organization: Genethon -- CEPHB Human Polymorphism Study Center, Paris, France Originator: stuart@vilnius.genethon.fr Nntp-Posting-Host: vilnius.genethon.fr In article <MTan.5@uci.edu>, MTan@uci.edu (Mary Tan) writes: |> |> WingZ is a spreadsheet program from Informix. Moreover, it also |> includes its own script language that can be used to build in-house |> application. |> |> Has anyone use WingZ? What do you think about this package? I have been using Wingz release 1.1a (Motif and OpenLook versions) during the last few months and I don't like it :-( 1/ Even when it is not being used (iconified) it sits in a select loop using significant amounts of CPU time. On a single user Sun it keeps xload moving but on our Sun 4/470 with with five or so people with Wingz open (but not being used mind you) it uses a significant amount of CPU time. 2/ It is meant to be WYSIWYG but is not. You layout a nice report and then print it only to find that all the text layouts and drawings are different. This reduces you (and your users) to a print and modify loop. 3/ Wingz prints text really badly. It appears not to know the widths of the characters on our laser printer; this results in printouts with incorrect interword spacings. There are other bugs but I am worried about starting to foam at the mouth. The script language exists and you can link in external C programs in a reasonable manner. In this manner you can write an interface between Wingz and your favourite database system. The one for Informix is included and I am busily writing an interface between Wingz and Sybase (I know that you can buy this but it was amazingly expensive). Are there any alternatives to Wingz? Please let me know as my company would be very interested in investigating other products. Stuart Pook (my opinions only--of course)