Re: FAQ (fwd)

It appears as though great minds think alike - so do the rest of us. This is from Kerry - hey look! Half the work done already. I haven't read it yet - we all should and provide CONSTRUCTIVE criticism where applicable. j. } AAAAArrrrrrrggggghhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! } } It was me who volunteered to create a FAQ about three weeks ago. } It's now complete. I've spent the last 5 days trying to post it } to c.d.i, but to no avail. } } A copy is attached. *PLEASE* post it to c.d.i if it hasn't made it } there yet! } } In article <30uvp3$1n8@emory.mathcs.emory.edu>, you wrote: } > } > Dave Coburn and I have been knocking it around today. If you will present } > me with any material you wish to go into an FAQ, I will start putting one } > together. Suggestions for outline would be nice too. } > } > A) What is this group (Walt's welcome letter goes here) } > B) Who/What is informix (Dave is getting this) } > C) How to reach them } > D) Books } > E) Engines (Online, SE, Turbo (shudder)) } > F) 'Front end' tools (i4gl, isql, r4gl, ace, debugger) } > G) 'Visual' tools (NewEra (less suds more cleaning power), 4gl for windows) } > H) Working from Unix with Informix (Make, environment variables) } > I) Termcap/Terminfo } > } > Floor is open for discussion. If you want to do this instead of me that's } > fine too. } > } > j. } > _____________________________________________________________________________ } > Jack Parker | } } Thanks, } Kerry S } (kerry@kcbbs.gen.nz) $Id: ifaq.t%v 1.1 1994/07/23 12:48:37 kerry Exp kerry $ Frequently Asked Questions about Informix Products -------------------------------------------------- This document attempts to answer some of the questions which regularly appear in the Usenet Newsgroup comp.databases.informix. In addition to "frequent" questions I've also included questions which I consider useful or interesting. Please don't hesitate to offer opinions on the content of this FAQ, and suggestions for improvement ("I've never done this before", he said shyly). I'm particularly interested in common ESQL problems. What do *you* consider to be common problems, or other items that should be in the FAQ? Send your questions, preferably with answers, and I'll be pleased to add them to the next release. [BEWARE: There are some glaring holes in this document, in addition to some feeble, poorly informed, answers. Please correct them!] Contents -------- 1. Frivolous background stuff: 1.1 Who, or what, is Informix? 1.2 How do you pronounce "Informix"? 1.3 What products to Informix sell, and what do they do? 1.4 What're the differences between Turbo/Online/SE/4GL/RDS/ESQL... 1.5 What are TPC-C benchmarks? 2. Common 4GL Programming Questions: 2.1 I keep getting -4518 errors! How can I fix this problem? 2.2 How can I write to a flat ASCII file? 2.3 How can I read from a flat ASCII file? 2.4 How can I force INPUT ARRAY onto the next line? 2.5 How can I make a screen dump? 2.6 Any undocumented features that I could play with? 2.7 Performance tips (Code Optimization) 2.8 Performance tips (Design Optimization) 2.9 How can I use #DEFINE-style constructs, like C? 3. Common ESQL Questions: 3.1 Why have Informix duplicated stleng, stcopy() etc in ESQL/C? 3.2 How can I get a list of databases? 4. 4GL/ESQL (ie: language independant) Questions: 4.1 Can I count the number of rows SELECTed, without using SELECT COUNT? 4.2 Is the number of rows processed in the SQLERRD structure accurate? 4.3 Interpreting SysColumns.ColType and SysColumns.ColLength 5. Common [I]SQL Questions: 5.1 How can I speed up my queries? 5.2 How can I use the results of an SQL query in a shell script? 5.3 Why can't I create a view with a calc column 5.4 How can I access data outside the current database? 6. Common Questions about the Engine: 6.1 What're some pointers for configuring Online? 6.2 What do I need to use MS-Access/Visual Basic with my Informix database? 6.3 Where can I get an ODBC driver? 6.4 What error messages are caused by locking problems? 6.5 What should I use instead of kill -9? 6.6 How can I tell what version I'm running? 7. Gimme something for nothing, what's available? 7.1 The Informix Archive 7.2 Is there a Perl interface to Informix? 7.3 What about Mac Client Software? 7.4 Is there an RDS de-compiler available? 8. Miscellany 8.1 What machines get ported to first? 8.2 How do I call a custom C function from ACE? --------------------- --------------------------- Frivolous background stuff: --------------------------- ------------------------------- 1.1 Who, or what, is Informix? ------------------------------- Informix Software is based in Menlo Park, San Jose, California, USA. They produce the Relational Database Engines, and associated programming tools that are generically labelled "Informix". Founded in 198x by x, y, and z under the name "Relational Data Systems" they released Informix 1.0 in 198x to some success. [this section clearly is fairly feeble - but I don't really know anything about Informix history. Can somebody fill the blanks?] ------------------------------------- 1.2 How do you pronounce "Informix"? ------------------------------------- Informix employees and the Politically Correct say "Inform-ix". Humans tend to say something closer to "Infor-mix". Possibley an American accent is the key to the first pronunciation. [Comments please!] --------------------------------------------------------- 1.3 What products to Informix sell, and what do they do? --------------------------------------------------------- Informix sells products in 3 broad categories: 1.3.1. Engines. These are raw database products capable of understanding SQL (Structured Query Language) commands. You need these to add change and delete records in a database, but they won't let you do any terminal I/O. Standard Engine - Low administration requirements (or just "SE") - Suitable for small to medium databases - Runs on "cooked" file-systems. Online Engine - Relatively high administration requirements - Copes well with large databases - Enhanced data types to cope with binary data, like pictures and sounds (ie: BLOBs and BYTEs) - Runs on "raw" file-systems (so faster than SE) C-ISAM - C routines for creating and using indexed sequential files. [Informix's first product?] 1.3.2. Tools. These are the products which let you build a user-interface to the data held in your database (see 1.3.1, above). Informix-4GL Informix's main programming language. Only a 3.5GL really, but still far more productive (and portable) than your average 3GL. Character