Re: Visual Basic 4 as a front end to Informix on Client-Server

Roger, >1. Should we be using ODBC to get from the client to the server (is >there any other choice?). I've heard dire things about the performance >implications. It's the only practical way to access an informix back-end and it works well if you understand how its works. Performance has been improved in VB4 and it now gives you a lot of control options for cursor handling. It's as least as good as anything else you'll find in any other Widows development environment. VB3 and earlier had a tendancy to try to resolve joins at the PC end and other strange things if you weren't carefull about what you're doing, thus resulting in poor performnace under some circumstances. >2. Does Visual Basic cope with dates in Informix format? This is the job of the ODBC driver. You have several vendors to choose from to get you connected to Informix. I've found the Visionware driver the best in my experience but I haven't had to deal with dates in an Informix environment. I wouldn't expect that to be a problem. >3. With VB being an interpreted rather than a compiled language, is >there any scope for re-using code between modules? If not what happens >about source control? I am worried about writing the same bit of code >50 times for 50 different programs, then finding a bug and having to >correct it in 50 places. Is there any scope for 'library' functions? VB4 is now quite OO . Again, at least as good as anything I know about. VB3 didn't lend itself well to team programming and re-useability. >4. Someone told me that there is no record locking in VB4. If this is >true then we can't use it as all our systems are multi-user. Someone >else told me that there is record locking but it is limited and you >can't lock a single Informix record, which is almost as bad. True. By default VB won't lock a resultset. However, it's possible to pass native Informix SQL straight throught via ODBC to Informix to get it to do whatever you want. My company develops Windows based client-server solutions for several companies in the UK and Europe. We would be happy to collaborate or consult on any projects you may have. Regards, - Ron Thorp Thorp Technology (44) 181 993 9080 On Sun, 15 Oct 1995 14:17:08 GMT, you wrote: >I work for a small software house which specialises in bespoke systems >for the publishing industry. Up until now all our systems have been on >Unix boxes written in 'C' using Informix as the database. We have >recently taken the decision to have a Windows front-end to some of our >software but don't want to change the server or the database so that >we don't have to rewrite all our code. >It looks as if we will be using Visual Basic 4 on PCs with some sort >of link to the Informix database on the Unix server. However, having >no experience in client-server and related matters in the company, we >have a few questions, which I would be grateful for input. >1. Should we be using ODBC to get from the client to the server (is >there any other choice?). I've heard dire things about the performance >implications. >2. Does Visual Basic cope with dates in Informix format? >3. With VB being an interpreted rather than a compiled language, is >there any scope for re-using code between modules? If not what happens >about source control? I am worried about writing the same bit of code >50 times for 50 different programs, then finding a bug and having to >correct it in 50 places. Is there any scope for 'library' functions? >4. Someone told me that there is no record locking in VB4. If this is >true then we can't use it as all our systems are multi-user. Someone >else told me that there is record locking but it is limited and you >can't lock a single Informix record, which is almost as bad. >If anyone has used VB as a front end to Informix on client-server I'd >be very grateful to hear of any tips, difficulties you had etc. Thanks >very much in advance for your help.