Oracle Tools Vs. VB as Front-Ends to Oracle Databases

We are currently using Designer/2000 using a process-led development approach. Due to the complexity of our process, we have come to the conclusion that the ‘100% Pure Designer/2000’ approach will not suffice. We are evaluating two alternatives: Developer/2000 and Visual Basic. The Visual Basic solution seems like a good approach for several reasons:

• Designer/2000 generates VB code.
• VB should have a much quicker learning curve than either Designer/2000 or Developer/2000.
• VB will allow us to create a more robust GUI using OCXs.
• VB 5 appears to have a better interface to the Web and a shorter development cycle.
• VB appears to be a better solution in addressing some of our complex areas, like creating/maintaining temporary tables, directory lookups, etc.
• VB has better third party support. We have several questions:
• For people who have used VB to front-end an Oracle database, what is your general impression of this approach?
• Is there a performance hit using VB?
• What is the stability of ODBC using VB?
• How much/how good is the VB code that Designer/2000 generates?
• What version of VB is the code that it generates?
• What are the reporting and graphing capabilities of VB versus Oracle Reports and Graphs? It is my understanding that VB can use Crystal Reports. How does Oracle compare?

This is not a large or mission critical application. Also, the concurrent user base should not be an issue.  

Any opinions, ideas, answers, or insight would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Gene Harris
Project Manager
Sprint Corp.
Dallas, TX
972-405-8921 Received on Mon Aug 25 1997 - 00:00:00 CEST