Evaluation of DBMS Application Development Environs

This is a follow up on a previous post where I posted my criteria for selecting a client/server DBMS. Here I've listed my observations to date on front end tools, and welcome any comments on these. Please respond by email and I will summarize and re-post.
-- Thank you!

I've heard that Powerbuilder (PB) provides a very broad and easy to use development environment, but that it isn't flexible enough to handle complex SQL queries, and requires special table setup on the server (how much trouble is this?). I've also heard criticism of PB's report writer, though I'm not sure if this refers to their most recent version. My initial impression of JAM and Visual Basic is that both are "lower level" than PB, thus one ends up writing (amd maintaining) more code for a given application. To a lesser extent, I saw this same critique leveled against SQLWindows in an InfoWorld review in January 92 that compared SQLWindows to PB. I should stress that the type of work we do is by no means routine database application work, so there are concerns that a tool like PB might not be sufficiently flexible.

Thanks in advance for all comments/replys.

• Brian Westrich

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Brian Westrich

Nutrition Coordinating Center (NCC)     internet: westrich_at_keystone.ncc.umn.edu
University of Minnesota                 phone:    (612) 627 4862