Well,

Maybe what you search for does not exist yet.

You exposed all the alternatives that I'm afraid of related to Informix.4gl.

I can only suggest Sybase's Power Builder...

It is not cheap, expensive I would said, but If you are proficient in 4gl then you could code logic in Power Builder in no time.

Besides costs, it is windows only, Although you could create non-visual code and deploy it in application servers in linux for instance.

Finally a lot of people, included hard-core fanatics, think that this product is dead too. Same kind of situation between IBM and Informix.


You migth hold your breath and start learning .Net or Java.


J.

-----Original Message-----
From: Andrea De Angeli <deangeliINVALID@INVALIDflorence-sculptures.it>
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2005 16:09:40 +0200
Subject: Development tools: where to? (Long)

Fellows,

This is a short story (actually long for Usenet) on the quest for a
development tool from an old Informix user.

I manage a 4GL shop (classic + 4JS), 50 users, 2 developers, custom
application, classic 4GL for almost everything, 4JS BDL where a more
complex data presentation was needed.
I am looking for a development tool that is as "simple and fast" as
4GL for writing and debugging, that runs both on application server
(linux, better) and single workstation (windows, naturally) with informix
db (in central store) and "light" db in laptops, unconnected, out of
office. That has a nice "swing-like" or tcl-like or windows like user
interface for accountants and managers and a text interface for production
sites and warehouses. That runs on windows and linux. A sort of Holy Graal.

Now, up to the quest.

OK, classic 4GL is dead.
It is not, I know, and 7.32 is almost complete
(in functionalities) but is limited in database connection, text
terminals and no windows runtime. Not feasible for "modern"
applications.

4JS BDL is dead, too. And they have a commercial support that su@ks,
at least here in Italy. Can you imagine? They consider the passage
to Genero as a new sale - no upgrade prices - and I was not even able to
get an evaluation copy. And, last but not least, their run-time licenses
are as expensive as crude oil (nowadays!).

So, I explored Querix. Nice package, excellent IDE, reasonable prices,
but: NO DEBUG! Quite a pain. I met them a more than year ago, they agreed
on the problem, said a new 5.0 release was under construction with p-code,
debug and other features but it is still under development. Here come the
first questions: does anyone out there actually use Hydra? Any comment?
How do you debug your applications?

More recently, I tried Rational/EGL. What a mess! I may be a bit
old-fashioned, but do not think I should need all that thing to produce
legacy reports for 5 accountants, with the look, agility and
user-friendliness of a web registration form. Huge hardware, huge software
(did you check the prices of Websphere runtimes recently?), huge response
times. I don't like web user interfaces, I don't need them. But Rational
is too much web oriented. Did someone succeed in actually using the
console user interface? or in producing a standalone application? I
didn't, but it can be my fault.

Last, I tried Aubit, but I think that development is still in too an early
stage for production sites. And, again, no debug.

In the meanwhile, we tried pure Java - we produce some nice reports with
JasperReport. I love it, it's free, no limitations, nice IDEs (even too

many, even free ones) but I think is too much a mess for a "real"
application. Does anyone know of a complete application written entirely
in Java? Or is it limited in writing a few classes for running a report,
or a videogame, or a tune in a mobile phone....

Worst of all was Visual Basic, some years ago. It's an M$ product - and
that's all.

This ends my search. Now the big question: where to go?
I am too lazy to learn C++ in my forties - I have done it a long time ago,
and have never been so happy to forget something - and I use as less Perl
as I can - only for system administration.
You are real world people, with real problems and practical solutions.
What do you use? How do you feel? I need your advice. "Open an Italian
Restaurant in Wellington, NZ" is a good one :-).

Sorry for the length.

Andrea






Jean Sagi
jeansagi@myrealbox.com
jeansagi@gmail.com
sending to informix-list