Re: Oracle Card v.s. SQL*FORMS 4.0

In article <C0GB3B.KzB_at_zoo.toronto.edu> sonya_at_zoo.toronto.edu (Sonya Neufer) writes:
>Does anybody know when the next version of Oracle Card and SQL*FORMS
>4.0 is to be released?

Oracle is not commenting on the release of Forms 4. The question with respect to Oracle*Card is what release are you referring to? There has already been a significant enhancement to the MS-DOS (Windows) version of Oracle*Card which resulted in a significant increase in price--I believe this is version 1.1. I haven't yet heard when the equivalent product will be released for Mac.

>Since SQL*FORMS 4.0 is going to be a Windows
>Application what is the difference between it and Oracle Card?

Different animals. SQL*Forms is a traditional electronic data input program which emphasizes rapid application development for data input operators with a high degree of data integrity. It is an incremental improvement over Forms 3 adding integrated menus, greater GUI compatibility and even some use of effects such as graphics and sound. Oracle*Card is also an application development tool, but it is based on the Hypercard metaphor. It has builtin  reporting capabilities that are not yet implemented for SQL*Forms, but the reports are pretty rudimentary. It has very little in the way of automatic data validation so I find that application development is much slower. Performance is sluggish, at least compared to SQL*Forms under DOS or Unix. It is often possible to create feature-rich applications with SQL*Forms with little or no resort to 3GL's, but everyone I know who has developed with Oracle*Card has had to do at least some 3GL programming. A lot of people think that Oracle*Card is more "fun." SQL*Forms is a boring "mainframish" environment.

-- 
________________________________________
Jack F. Love	| 	Opinions expressed are mine alone.
		|	(Unless you happen to agree.)