Re: Please recommend me a DB!

In article <833218894snz_at_matrixlk.demon.co.uk> Peter_Headland_at_matrixlk.demon.co.uk writes:
>> Progress a very clumsy language, tends to promote long meandering
>> [more rubbish deleted]

You cut out the performance comments, which I am finding are spot on. How much CPU & RAM is considered necessary for a low user count, high compute complex algorithm system? I've got severe problems on a Sun SPARC 5 with 32 Mb RAM and only 3 users, with Win NT clients on P90 machines with 16 Mb RAM. Similar h/ware in my wife's lab is running a gigabyte database with 8 users full time. But it's in Informix.

I'm seriously considering swapping the server to Oracle.

>
>I think you are just showing your own ignorance/stupidity by talking such
>nonsense. Sounds like you started out with an "I'm not going to like this"
>attitude and twisted everything you saw to fit your prejudice.
>
>I've used plenty of other languages and had my ration of SQL and Progress is
>easily the best tool I've seen for serious data manipulation and analysis.
>Indirection is hardly the most vital feature in a commercial application
>development tool! Concise, readable, maintainable db access code is what's
>needed and Progress delivers that superbly.

Progress 4GL is just OK, no more. The SQL is *still* a joke; I have SQL that works perfectly as a standalone procedure but dies as an internal procedure. Using GROUP BY clauses is a good way to run out of stack space, which brings down the whole client session. I have other SQL which gives different numbers to a FOR EACH.. loop.

I'm still waiting for dynamic SQL or the equivalent to implement QBE.

I agree about indirection. Unnecessary in a 4GL (and anyway, he's wrong. Just use VALUE(somefunc) and you're away).

>
>If you set out to write a compiler in Progress, I'd understand your comments,
>but that's not what it's designed for. Very few Progress users ever have to
>resort to a 3GL, which is more than you can say for any other "4GL's" I've
>encountered.

You obviously never used Informix 4GL. Beats Progress hollow. Pity they can't build a good GUI language yet. Which I think V8 is, BTW.

Peter Wiley Received on Wed May 29 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST