Re: Forms 4.0 for Macintosh

>>>>> On 21 Feb 1994 09:23:11 GMT, berli_at_switch.ch (Martin Berli) said:

  MB> - I fear that performance could be bad. What are the hardware
  MB> requirements so one can develop and most importantly *operate*
  MB> with acceptable speed?

For development, I would recommend nothing less than an 040 macintosh. Obviously, the more horsepower you have, the happier you will be. For my own use here, I have a IIci with a 40MHz 030 accelerator board. It is quite usable, but I would want something faster if I were doing this day in day out.

For deployment, you can get away with less horsepower...

The more memory you have the better. Depending on the size of your forms which you will be designing, I would recommend 16MB to 20MB of total RAM for developement, and 6 to 8MB per CDE tool (don't forget to add RAM used by System to figure out how much space to get) used concurrently for deployment.

For development, you need at least a 13" monitor. I recommend that you have at least a 16" monitor.

  MB> - What components are needed? Our server (7) runs on a Solaris
  MB> 2.3. I have a version of SQL*Net for Macintosh which dates of
  MB> 1991. I suppose this is not compatible with SQL*Net V2 on the unix
  MB> machine. What's the current state of SQL*Net for Macintosh? Is it
  MB> a control panel or an extension?  (I suppose it operates on top of
  MB> MacTCP)

Yes, you need access to a v7 database, which means you need SQL*Net for the Macintosh. SQL*Net TCP/IP for the Macintosh is a driver which loads itself into the application heap when used. It does rely on underlying TCP/IP drivers such as MacTCP (by Apple) or TCPort (by Novell).

No SQL*Net v1 will work against v2. Currently SQL*Net v2 for the Macintosh is not in Production. It should be in Production pretty soon, however. You can call your sales rep for more information regarding the beta program, if you want.

  MB> - How "Mac-like" is Forms 4.0 for Mac?

There are some issues where you can tell that Forms was not designed around the Macintosh GUI... such is the price you pay for portable applications. However, for the most part, it looks and feels like Mac application.

  MB> - About porting unix-generated forms to the Mac: Is it really so   MB> easy as the advertisements say?

So long as you are aware of the porting issues involved, then it is quite easy to port forms with little or no modification. Porting issues are things such as:

• avoid using the host() command as this is quite port specific.
• aovid using dde on Windows
• be careful of the fonts you use. Be aware of the fact that the mac port does not implement FORMS40_DEFAULTFONT so any fonts which are labled as "Default" (which happens by default), will be turned into 12 point monaco. This can cause some problems for form scaling. However, if you explicitly declare the fonts to be, for example, Courier 12, your form will look fine on all platforms.

There are other porting issues, but these are the ones which seem to trip up the most people.

  MB> - How stable is it?

It is quite solid.

Regards,
--Doug

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Doug Bitting
Oracle Worldwide Technical Support
Apple Desktop Products Group