Re: 4GL conversion

> My Command is currently running INFORMIX SQL 2.10.03G. We are considering > buying and converting to 4GL product Rapid Development System. ... > Since I am a sceptic at heart, I thought I would ask the user group if they > have had any unanticipated problems converting/running simultaneously. I did this conversion a few years ago. Under the SE database engine I had no problems running compiled and RDS 4GL at the same time. (Although I didn't do this much: I converted all the applications at once, so the only overlap was when I was debugging, and the users were still using the compiled versions.) The conversion itself went pretty smoothly, but don't count on being able to do it without making any changes in the code. My experience is that both 4GL processors have minor bugs, and they're not exactly the same. There were some constructions that c4gl accepted, but fglpc rejected. Once you get the code running, you're almost home free: I didn't find any subtle differences in the executing code between the two versions. There was an outright bug in the RDS interpreter, however. Statements like let a = a - b did not work correctly, and had to be rewritten as let tmp = a - b let a = tmp I think this bug was still active in version 2.10.03F. I think it works correctly in 4.00, but I don't know when it was fixed: probably you should upgrade while you're making changes anyway. If you're still doing new development, having the RDS debugger available should more than make up for any hassles that arise in conversion. -- Harry Bochner -- bochner@das.harvard.edu