CODEWITHSUNDEEP
sqldatabaseinformix
Joe R.
Joe R.

Reputation: 2052

IBM Informix-SQL and the new IBM Informix Genero

  1. Did IBM recently acquire or co-label FourJ's Genero RDBMS?
  2. Has anyone evaluated or developed apps with Genero under Windows?
  3. Anyone know if IBM has made any modifications to Genero?
  4. Does IBM Informix Genero provide a 4GL code generator?

I have been developing applications with Informix since 1983 (Informix 3.3 on ALTOS XENIX-based systems). Most of my users are small businesses which only require single-user capabilities. So when MS-DOS versions of Informix (i.e. from 2.10.06E (1985) to 4.10.DD6 (1991)) where available, I deployed my apps on these DOS versions of Informix.

When Microsoft Windows started gaining more popularity (circa 1990, Windows 3.1), my DOS-based ISQL apps wouldn't properly function unless the Windows-based systems where restarted in DOS mode. My apps worked fine until DOS 6.22 (Windows98).

I then tried to persuade my DOS-based users to upgrade to UNIX-based systems in order to work with supported versions of ISQL, but only a few opted to migrate. At this point, I realized that RDS had not given any priority for a migration path of ISQL or I4GL under Windows. RDS made a mediocre attempt with NewEra but that product was flawed and failed.

So, for my stubborn DOS-based users, who wanted my app to work under Windows, I provided DOS 6.22 under a virtual machine (Microsoft Virtual PC 2007) which has Windows shared folder capability (example: DOS Drive W: = a Windows Vista Desktop Folder)and Windows device support (examples: DOS drive F: = Windows Drive F: USB Flash Drive, DOS LPT1: rerouted to a Windows USB Dot Matrix Printer).

You may ask yourself why I have stuck with ISQL and not moved up to I4GL. The main reason is because my app is not that complicated, development and modification speed with ISQL is so much faster than I4GL, Perform screens allow multiple tables on same screen , Ace reports are very fast to code, etc.

When RDS stopped providing Informix for Windows, I began to look for alternatives like: FourGen, 4Js, Querix, etc. but none of them matched the development and modification speed of my ole ISQL versions. I wish IBM could provide an ISQL version which works under native Windows, I'm resistant to coding in 4GL when most mundane things are automatically handled by ISQL's Perform, Ace and SQL procs.

Upvotes: 1

Views: 995

Answers (1)

Jonathan Leffler
Jonathan Leffler

Reputation: 753845

  1. IBM did not acquire either 4J's the company or the Genero product. But it is now shipping a rebranded version of Genero.
  2. People have evaluated Genero on Windows.
  3. IBM has not made any changes to Genero.
  4. If the 4J's Genero product includes a 4GL generator, so does IBM's Genero.

RDS (Relational Database Systems, Inc.) became Informix Software in 1987 or 1988, some considerable time before Windows 3.1, let alone Win95 or Win98, became available.

I4GL allows multiple tables on the same screen. ACE is a very useful language, but the I4GL reports are very similar and in some ways even more flexible.

Upvotes: 1

Related Questions