[comp.infosystems] ACCELL/SQL vs. PROGRESS

olshause@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Ronald Olshausen) (06/08/91)

I'm doing a project which requires use of a 4GL on top of
an SQL-based RDBMS. 

Anyone out there with any experience with either ACCELL/SQL and/or
PROGRESS? Any comparisons between the two?

Any info at all would be much appreciated: cost, performance, etc.
Also, I'd be interested to hear whether one has any specific features
lacking in the other. Other similar packages would also be of interest.

Thanks in advance,

Ronald Olshausen
Indiana University - Bloomington

ds@gator.cacs.usl.edu (Donald R. Schwartz) (06/13/91)

In article <1991Jun8.011834.1049@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> olshause@copper.ucs.indiana.edu (Ronald Olshausen) writes:
>I'm doing a project which requires use of a 4GL on top of
>an SQL-based RDBMS. 
>
>Anyone out there with any experience with either ACCELL/SQL and/or
>PROGRESS? Any comparisons between the two?
>
>Any info at all would be much appreciated: cost, performance, etc.
>Also, I'd be interested to hear whether one has any specific features
>lacking in the other. Other similar packages would also be of interest.
>
>Thanks in advance,
>
>Ronald Olshausen
>Indiana University - Bloomington

Ronald,

i don't have any cost/performance figures for you, but i have been
using PROGRESS since november and can tell you that the functionality
of PROGRESS *definitely* depends on the version you choose -- I used
version 6.2a and it had SEVERAL bugs -- version 6.2f has fixed  some (all?)
of the bugs i found, but i don't know if it has been released.
(i received a pre-release copy.)

ASIDE FROM THAT -- progress does give you a good environment in which to
work, and offers good rapid-prototyping facility (in terms of menu/screen
development, etc.).  some versions offer embedded sql (6.2a *offered* it,
but it didn't work -- one of the bugs i found -- it works in 6.2f), and the ability to call
C (or pascal or cobol) routines from within the progress language, which is VERY helpful.
i think most versions give you the ability to use both the progress
language and SQL, which also comes in handy.

right now, my group is developing a software package which uses both
progress and xview -- getting them to work correctly together has been "fun".

hope this helps, at least a little.
--donald