Re: New Era vs. Power Builder. Which ???

Hi all, JoseAntonio Robles -SUNAT-LIMA/PERU (joser@sunatxx.gob.pe) wrote: : I saw some weeks (maybe months) ago a discussion on evaluating New Era. : Now it is our turn to buy a C/S tool and we have been so happy using : Informix products that we were just about to buy New Era. : However, the PowerBuilder representative here in Peru, has just sent us : some information very interesting. : They say: : Powerbuilder has 46% of the market, : GUPTA is 30% and : Visual Basic 18% : And New Era will fall in the remaining 6% I can certainly appreciate the statistics on market share. I don't believe that statistics tell the entire story as I don't believe that NewEra belongs in this category. GUI building is an important piece of creating C/S apps but, I don't believe that it is the source of the results that we are looking for. Powerbuilder, SQLWindows and VB are all GUI-centric tools. They are (by necessity) very closely tied to the native GUI environment. NewEra has a Window Painter and allows you to develop a GUI interface but, that's not all there is to NewEra. As far as I am concerned, NewEra is a tool to be used in constructing large-scale object-oriented systems... not just GUI clients. Starting with v2.0, NewEra will support character-based terminals. And you will even be able to build apps which have *no* windows... good OO programs which just do the work you want without the overhead of graphical elements. The support for application partitioning is also another key to providing large-scale systems that scale well. These are not examples of "vaporware"... this is stuff that works today and will be available for general purchase shortly. : and they claim to have more than 160,000 users worldwide. : they also claim that "Hyatt Hotels" have Informix RDBMS and Powerbuilder : to query the database, also the Justice Administration of UTAH uses : Powerbuilder and Meryll Lynch has 1,600 users querying their database : using Powerbuilder. I fully recognize that alot of people have been using PB for a long time. Those people that implemented systems using PB or some other tool no doubt chose their respective tools for specific reasons. The most likely being that it fit what they were doing *at the time* they started. NewEra is improving significantly with each release. It provides developers with more of the functionality that they are looking for in building successful C/S apps. While most shops share common goals (in their efforts to develop apps for their users), every business has its own special elements which has it be different from every other business, just like people. I think that the choice of tool should be based upon how well that tool addresses your unique needs (and even your common ones !!! :-) ). I have done a good deal of VB as a windows programmer and I am not ashamed to say that I like it !!!. Even though I like the tool, I would not try to use it to do things it was not designed for (...like building complex C/S applications). This logic, I believe, applies to all tools, regardless of who builds/provides them. : I suppose all this is true. If anybody would be so kind to give me more : reasons to choose New Era over Powerbuilder ( or Powerbuilder over New : Era), I will apreciate it very much. : Also if anybody from Merryl Lynch, Hyatt, or UTAH Justice System is : reading this, could you tell me your experience. : Or if anybody else is happy with any of the tools would like to help me : with your comments i will also appreciate it. If you come up with specific questions about any of my "chicken scratch" or NewEra, I will do my best to respond in a timely and accurate manner. : Thank you very much in advanced for your time and effort, : Jose Antonio : P.S: If you have a comment and you are going to the Conference in San Jose, : please let me know how to contact you. : -- : *SUPERINTENDENCIA NACIONAL DE ADMINISTRACION TRIBUTARIA (SUNAT) LIMA - PERU* : *CENTRO INTERAMERICANO DE ADMINISTRADORES TRIBUTARIOS / Conv. SUNAT-BID-CIAT* : Jose Antonio Robles F. E-mail: joser@sunat.gob.pe : *******If you know about AFS Intercultural Programs, Please e-mail me.*******a Ken /*----------------------------------------------------------------------- | Ken Gonzalez | Informix Software | Voice: 714-251-6578 Professional Services Division | Fax: 714-251-6579 18101 Von Karman, Suite 350 | e-mail: kengon@informix.com Irvine, CA 92715 | | -----------------------------------------------------------------------*/ #include <std_disclaimer.h>