Informix vs. Oracle vs. 4D vs......
Path: emory!gatech!mcnc!alvin!pickel From: pickel@mcnc.org (Lisa C. Pickel) Newsgroups: comp.databases Keywords: choosing db Message-ID: <8239@alvin.mcnc.org> Date: 13 Sep 91 13:41:31 GMT Sender: Lisa C. Pickel <pickel@alvin> Organization: Center for Microelectronics, MCNC; RTP, NC It's design-a-system time here at the ranch. I would be very interested in getting the comments/tirades from those of you willing to read the next ~50 lines of text.......... Problem: design a cleanroom tracking system for a cleanroom engaged in non-standard, contract-style work. Also design applications for marketing types to check in on the progress of a client's job. Also applications to generate estimates, final invoices. Also applications to track usage of chemicals, downtime of various sectors. Also applications to track throughput, yield. etc. etc. Server: We may go with a UNIX workstation (either Sun Sparc or HP9000) or with a MacIIfx (my preference is to go with a real machine, like the Sun). Clients: Dumb terminals and Macs (probably running MacOS to insure compatibility with Mac software we already have). Network: Hook clients to the server via Ethernet (TCP/IP). DB System: To start, 139 tables, each table has no more than 20 fields. I am estimating that we add 1.5M of data each year to the db. There will be at least four applications requiring extensive programming, so integrating SQL into C or some other equivalent solution is necessary. (I have been doing C programming for 7 years, so I am not "afraid" of C--dbms sales folk I have spoken to have found this very odd). Many of the users are not computer literate, so being able to exploit pulldown menus, scrollbars etc. for data entry and report gen. on the Mac is a must. The users also want to be able to have windows of other applications displayed simultaneously with the db application windows. To start, we can expect ~50 users, perhaps a dozen or so may try to access the db simultaneously. Some have said that a Mac server will slow noticeably at this level of use. (I see in the May90 issue of MacWorld that the IIfx takes 22 *seconds* to sort 4730 4D records-- coming from UNIXland, I find that "speed" appalling!) My inclination: I have looked into Oracle, Informix, Quintus Prolog, 4D and Double Helix. 4D is right out because it only allows 99 tables per db. Double Helix is out because it has no looping facility in it's "language". Prolog is very powerful and I love it to death, but it does not come with the forms generation tools and the built-in locking and backup mechanisms of standard dbms. So I've narrowed it down to Oracle vs. Informix. Comments welcome. Is there something even better than these two? Lisa. pickel@mcnc.org