RE: Windows front end for Oracle

amcb_at_sydney.DIALix.oz.au (Andrew McBurnie) wrote:
>
> Has anyone got any opinions/experiencs to relate on using Windows
> based front ends on a PC to an Oracle server? (Or even to PC Oracle).
> What I want to know is how bug-free they are, the overheads, cost, etc.
>
> I'm thinking of products like Oracle Cards. I know other products are
> available. Really, something a bit more basic is what we need -
 basically
> an equivalent to Oracle Forms, but running under MS Windows, with
> Windows look and feel.
OTHER STUFF IN SAME VEIN DELETED I am developing a search-only front end for naive users using Oracle Card. Version 1 has a rich selection of bugs which were due to be fixed in version 2 which was due out last month. On the very brink of delivery with all their users praying for v2 to come *soon*!, _quick_!!, NOW!!! they suddenly announce they've had a better idea and they're going to call it Oracle Media Objects (OMO), give it lots of multi media functionality and DELAY THE BLOODY THING FOR MONTHS AND MONTHS. They are now thinking again about this timescale fortunately, and we should know next week.

The point is that a) it's difficult to know how suitable this new thing will be for any given type of application. Oracle Card is easy to assess because it's a clone of Hypercard and you can get a good idea of it from knowing that. OMO is obviously not a Hypercard clone or at least, it must be moving away from it.

The other point is b) that Oracle's Windows products seem to be quite slow on the kind of PC that longtime Windows users might have e.g. your 325/SX type thing. I can vouch for this where Card is concerned. There is absolutely no question in my mind of running Card applications on this sort of machine. I am using a Dell 466/ME with 16Mb RAM and performance is only OK.

The other other point c) is that for Windows (not Mac) one of the bugs in v1 is that it won't handle more than 16 colours. Whether this is a problem or not depends on your application.

In its favour, it is more fun to develop in than anything I've ever used before. I just love Oracle Talk (clone HyperTalk) and I've never minded weak (non-existent?) variable typing.

I wouldn't use it for any application that needed much in the way of user input. There's no built in validation of user input. It won't even tell you if you exceed the field length so you have to do all that yourself.

It's quite cheap. Runtime version GBP199, develpment version GBP399. Pretty good as that sort of thing goes, I thought.

Tony Scott
(asc_at_cix.compulink.co.uk) Received on Fri Feb 18 1994 - 09:19:50 CET