Re: informix upward compatibility (fwd)

In article <9287@emory.mathcs.emory.edu> cris@logic.dsg.ti.com (Cris Schramm) writes: |> |> I've just taken on a client who has a 4GL runtime license version 1.10 |> |> I'd like to upgrade them to 4.0 if his existing code will run in the |> 4.0 environment. |> |> Does anyone have any knowledge of the upgradability of the 1.10 code? |> I'd like to avoid re-compiling everything if at all possible.... One potential problem you may have is the level of the operating system that your client has. When we were trying to find a fix for a bug (which incidently Informix was aware of), we were told that the fix should be fixed in the next higher release of Informix SQL from our current release. When we got down to inquiring about the upgrade we find that the upgrade would not be guaranteed unless our OS was the OS that the upgrade was ported to. We have a 3b2/700 that is currently on SysV r 3.2.1 the Informix upgrade was ported to SysV r 3.2.3 (hmmmm...). "What's the *real* difference?", we asked...Informix just will not stand by the upgrade unless we were on the right release was the only reply. Additionally, there should be another higher release of SQL, but it was ported for SysV r 4.0! Informix wanted to know why we didn't just upgrade to rel 4 of SysV and get their latest/greatest. Folks, on a 3b2 that a major HARDWARE & SOFTWARE upgrade costing large denomination dollar bills. I suppose what is troubling to me about this is, that Informix addresses their "known" bugs in upgrades ported to the current release of the OS. That's well and good if "everyone" is going to "always" upgrade the OS. But not to support their product except in this way seems to abandon the end user to and upgrade everything or die existence. Ok....flames off now...in practice, it's conceivable that upgrading your clients 4GL may cost them more than just the 4GL package...tread carefully and ask a LOT of questions about what's guaranteed by Informix.