f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) (10/11/89)
Hello, We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) as far as programming languages go? I have heard good things about Informix. Would we be at home or lost? Any suggestions? James E. Ward Boren's Laws: (1) When in charge, ponder. (2) When in trouble, delegate. (3) When in doubt, mumble.
monty@delphi.uchicago.edu (Monty Mullig) (10/13/89)
In article <5809@decvax.dec.com> f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) writes: > >We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking >would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be >the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) as far >as programming languages go? I have heard good things about Informix. Would >we be at home or lost? Any suggestions? > >James E. Ward i have to suggest starting from scratch. the MS-DOS and unix worlds are so different and the db packages available on unix so richly featured that i think trying to preserve the clipper/dos programming environment would severely limit you in the long run, or at least would deny you the best of the unix world and its software. just my opinion, though. --monty
timk@xenitec.on.ca (Tim Kuehn) (10/14/89)
In article <5796@tank.uchicago.edu> monty@delphi.UUCP (Monty Mullig) writes: >In article <5809@decvax.dec.com> f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) writes: >> >>We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking >>would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be >>the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) as far >>as programming languages go? >>James E. Ward >i have to suggest starting from scratch. the MS-DOS and unix worlds >are so different and the db packages available on unix so richly >featured that i think trying to preserve the clipper/dos programming >environment would severely limit you in the long run, or at least >would deny you the best of the unix world and its software. just my >opinion, though. > >--monty Actually part of the question is "Which unix are you going to use"? If you go to the SCO Xenix/Unix then you can get the SCO version of Foxbase/+ 2.1 which runs virutally identical to the ms-dos version. There are some differences between clipper and foxbase/+ (f-base doesn't do windows as easily as clipper's dbedit and memoedit functions, but then clipper doesn't allow you the kind of macro-command creation/execution f-base does. There are other dielectical-type differences, but once you get over those the environment's are actually quite similar. The 'windowing' question can be addressed in f-base by writing your own 'dbedit' function (or buy the one I'm just about finished writing :-) no commercialisim intended...) However, if you go to a 4GL or SQL type package, then yes - you will be starting from scratch. How much of a scratch I don't know, not having used any of the 4gl's out there yet. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Timothy D. Kuehn timk@xenitec.on.ca | |TDK Consulting Services !watmath!xenitec!timk | |871 Victoria St. North, Suite 217A | |Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2B 3S4 (519)-741-3623 | |DOS/Xenix - SW/HW. uC, uP, DBMS. Satisfaction Guaranteed| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
bruce@mdi386.UUCP (Bruce A. McIntyre) (10/16/89)
In article <5809@decvax.dec.com>, f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) writes: > We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking > would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be > the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) as far > as programming languages go? I have heard good things about Informix. Would > we be at home or lost? Any suggestions? > James E. Ward We were long time developers using the dBASE language, starting back when dBASEII first showed up under CP/M. Over the years, as we kept running beyond the capabilities of the dBASE environment, we used Clipper, Foxbase, and others. However, when we went to the UNIX environment full time, we found that we needed a real, robust, fast 4GL and DBMS to develop with. We explored Oracle, Informix 4GL, Unify Accell and others, but in the end we selected PROGRESS from Progress Software. This has proven to be a very good move. It was easy for the dBASE programmers to move to PROGRESS, once they got used to the idea of SCOPING, and the reliability and flexibility of the PROGRESS environment has allowed us to do whatever we needed without going to a "C" environment at all. PROGRESS offers both the high-level 4GL functions that an Informix 4GL does, and yet offers the lower level nit-picking stuff that is necessary to really get what you want in a appli- cation. In addition, the ability to move the exact same source code to such a wide variety of platforms has proven to be a real market advantage. The reliability and speed of PROGRESS have proven to be even more than we hoped, and the new multi-threaded server has allowed us to move to very large applications and databases with no degredation in speed. The latest system under development will be working with 2.5 gigabyte databases for insurance policy processing, to replace a system that was running on a Honywell Mainframe... Just happy users and developers, bruce -- ========================================================================= Bruce A. McIntyre, McIntyre Designs, Inc. VOICE(215)322-1895 143 Bridgetown Pike, Langhorne, Pa. 19047 DATA (215)357-2915 {wells|lgnp1}!mdi386!bruce bruce@mdi386 tbit+
timk@xenitec.on.ca (Tim Kuehn) (10/17/89)
In article <226@labii.UUCP> shevett@labii.UUCP (Dave Shevett) writes: >>f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) writes: >> >>We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking >>would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be >>the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) ... > >I think you should seriously look at Foxbase under [X|U]nix. I belive this is only available with the SCO product. It *may* be ported to other unix's too, but one should check first.... >If you're >already familiar with the dBase III structure, Foxbase will serve you fine, >and you can port your application to the Unix system with NO mods (save >possibly reindexing your files). I developed a big Foxbase application >under DOS, including file and record locking, and it ported to Unix and ran >ON THE FIRST TRY. I can second that. I help beta-test f-base just before it first came out. Outside of a couple trivila beta bugs here and there I had the same experience with a production tracking system I'd developed for a local steel mill. Just copy the code and the databases over, recompile and reindex, and you're off to the races! >If I wanted to run another task in the background that didn't need >interactive I/O, you could push it into the background and return to the >application via a !function & command. (gee, I wonder how that would work? >Isn't & a comment in Foxbase? Has anyone done this?) No - the && is the end-of-line comment in Foxbase. If the first character is a "*" then the whole line is a comment. The "&" is a prefix for a macro substitution. Some examples: * This line is a comment i = chr(34) + "?hello world"+chr(34) && This is a macro command &i && This will execute the && command ?"hello world" Running the above little program from the '.' prompt or as a .prg will give: Hello world on your screen. Macro substituion is a the standard f-base way to pass arrays as arguments to procedures and functions, to wit: dimension array1(10) array1 = 1 && Store array1 with all '1's i = summ_all("array1") && Call proc to summ array elements ?i ************************************************ procedure summ_all && F-base uses procedures as opposed parameters arr_name && to clipper's function/procedure private summ && Statements. summ = 0 i =1 do while i <= 10 summ = summ + &arr_name(i) && Total up the array elements i = i + 1 enddo return(summ) >I'll admit I'm biased, but I haven't found a major need to dish out >bucks x 10^XXX for a large dbms when Foxbase has everything I need... Ditto! There are some differences between f-base and clipper (f-base has no dbedit() and memoedit() calls, nor some of the other nice f{read/open/write/close} calls clipper has, but they can be worked around. (The dbedit function can be emulated too by writing your own code or (dare I suggest this?) buying a f-base clone of the function which I'm almost done writing) >/--------------------+ 'The shortest distance +------------------\ >| Dave Shevett | between two puns is a | Labyrinth II BBS | >| shevett@labii.UUCP | straight line...' | W. Trenton, NJ | >\--------------------+ - Doc Webster +------------------/ +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Timothy D. Kuehn timk@xenitec.on.ca | |TDK Consulting Services !watmath!xenitec!timk | |871 Victoria St. North, Suite 217A | |Kitchener, Ontario, Canada N2B 3S4 (519)-741-3623 | |DOS/Xenix - SW/HW. uC, uP, DBMS. Satisfaction Guaranteed| +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+