Re: Is Delphi comparable to Forms 4.5?

Jos Kerssens <jos_at_zeus.wnc.nedlloyd.nl> writes:  

>Delphi is a great tool from what I understand but it should be categorized
>with products like Power Objects (previously called Project X from Oracle)
>and is more suitable for smaller devlopment teams and a smaller number
>of users. Forms 4.5 is suitable for enterprisem wide applications and can
>support a big number of users and developers working on the same appl.
>This because of the central repository.
 

If you use "central repository" to mean storing form modules in the Oracle database, then I believe you are mislead.  

My experience with Oracle Forms v4.5 is that your life is a LOT easier if you store your form modules in regular files, say on a file server. Fortunately, v4.5 adds some features over v4.0 that makes it easier to use files for all modules.  

Based on actual experience with "repositories", I still feel that file directory systems win out for program storage. Repositories must reinvent access control, versioning, copying of entire directory subtrees, and many other features long ago stabilized in file systems. What benefit do "repositories" provide to justify the move backward in these features?    

On the main topic of Borland Delphi vs. Oracle Forms:  

Forms is more of a Fourth Generation Language (4GL), since it manages the access to database tables from form grids. The programmer writes very little code, and most of this code is in the form of trigger interceptions.  

Delphi (like Visual Basic) is more of a Third Generation Language (3GL), in that the programmer writes more code. However, the programmer gets more control of the functionality in return for this work.    

The distinction is not clean, since the 3GL's make very good use of object-oriented component technology to provide pre-fabricated functionality.    

Rather than compare Forms with Delphi, I feel that a better equivalent to Oracle Forms is Microsoft Access. Both Forms and Access allow direct creation of Add,Change,Inquiry,Delete froms from a table definition with ZERO code being written.  

Until the component world creates objects that provide this functionality, we will probably need to use BOTH the 4GL and 3GL products for business application development.    

Just some thoughts.  

• Rick --

(Rick Rutt is a system architect living and working in Midland, Michigan.) Received on Thu Apr 13 1995 - 00:00:00 CEST