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Do u think IBM, Querix, Aubit and 4js will pay for that? You can't ask a
volunteer org such as IIUG to do it for free...

2nd point: IIUG stands for I... Informix U... G.... There is an issue here:
if you want 4GL to be successful, it needs to go beyond Informix (such as
some vendors are already proposing). It has to be independent from any db
vendors / db vendors user group.

I know for sure that at least 2 will not.

Jean Georges

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-informix-list@iiug.org [mailtowner-informix-list@iiug.org] On
Behalf Of malcolm
Sent: Thursday, 08 April, 2004 16:49
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: 4GL standards? (was: An interesting meeting with IBM)

It is precisely because this is such a small volume market that we
should think about the potential confusion if IBM go one-way which is
incompatible with Qerix and 4Js. Suddenly we will have many
proprietary 4GLs out there, if we haven't already. (In my original
mail I set I floated the idea in 1988, that should have read 1998.)
The concept is that the IIUG (or other standards body) would certify
that versions of 4GL agreed to the standard language. Obviously this
would need funding but the compiler writers would pay to have their
syntax certified and the monies raised would be used to employ the
people to do the certification. I just don't fancy the problems when
IBM have changed screen handling of migration of 4GL written aeons ago
to the nes IBM dialect, to the Qerix dialect, and to the 4Js dialect.
So, if mehdi and peter collett are listening, and If IBM are
listening, how about solving this before it becomes a problem.

regards

malcolm

"Andrew Hamm" <ahamm@mail.com> wrote in message
news:<c52h6c$2lcnlp$1@ID-79573.news.uni-berlin.de>...
> malcolm weallans wrote:
> > In about 1988 I suggested that there was a need for a standards body
> > to take over the protection of Informix-4GL syntax. At that time we
> > were faced with 4Js, Qerix, Aubit, and Informix, to name 4, all
> > producing 4GL compilers that could drift in syntax. Nobody was
> > interested. Is there any interest now? And would it be a good idea
> > for IIUG to co-ordinate this effort, if not becoming the standards
> > body itself?
> >
> > Any thoughts would be much appreciated
>
> Errrrrrmmmmmm - i don't think there's really any will to make an ISO
> standard 4GL. In the grand scheme of things, 4GL is a small language
market.
>
> 4JS is leading the charge, and IBM with WebSphere claims to be keen on
ideas
> from customers. I hope that 4JS and websphere will work together to stay
> fairly close. Querix are trying hard but I think they'll be forced to
follow
> or risk going out on a limb. You've probably seen that Querix have worked
to
> make themselves compatible with D4GL/BDL. I don't think they've started on
> Genero compatibility. Aubit has a bit of interesting freaky stuff, but
then,
> Andre has to earn a living too, so it doesn't seem to be racing ahead.
Aubit
> seems to be for people who don't want to pay licence fees, but are willing
> to spend many hours working in C(++?) to fix or add features they need.
That
> doesn't include many business programmers from the looks of it.



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