Re: Gupta vs Forms 4.0

colipha_at_ibm.net wrote:
: Our shop is about to make its first venture into client/server.
: (Wish us luck.)
: We looked a several tools that were:
: 1. Heavily used - so we could find help easily
: 2. Resonably priced
: and a bunch of other factors
: The choice came down to Gupta and Forms 4.0. Any comments?
: Any horror stories? We are leaning toward Gupta.

   I think gupta is a good product. I have a friend who is a    Gupta consulting partner, and he feels very good about the    product and is kept very busy. The company treats him well.    They are serious about building strong relationships with    customers and independent consultants. Unfortnunately, having    a good, or even the best product, is no guarantee of success in    the software world.

   A big danger with using a product like Gupta is that the    future of the product is less predictable. Gupta and Powerbuilder    were able to build a strong presence in the MS-Windows world    while Oracle seemed to be sleeping. Now, Oracle is wide awake    and has a very competitive product for windows.    Gupta faces new competion from MS-Access, and the new    Sybase/Powerbuilder coupling.    

   One of the strengths of using forms4.0 with Oracle server is that    code can be easily moved from the client to the server, because    the language is the same on both sides. This ability is extremely    important in tuning client-server applications.

   The common language also enables the Forms4.0 product to pull lots    of data and rule definitions from the server. This saves a lot of    coding, and makes rapid prototyping easier.

   My 2 cents and all that....

--
  Bob Treumann                        
  Solution Engineering Inc.               email:  sei_at_elmwood.com
  ORACLE Business Partner (IOCA program).
  ORACLE CASE Specialist.