Re: Throughput and storage requirements questions for modern vs old database processing apps

 "John Becich" <jbecich_at_nospam.net> wrote:

>> ntx files are index files in Clipper. DBF files are the Clipper database
>> files. The program is not stored in the database but in an executable on
>> each machine.

>Thank you for eliciting these important points.

You did the eliciting, he merely elucidated! 8-)

>I am shopping for a rental program, as you suggested. The leading
>candidate, to date, is one called "Systematic." This vendor has training
>regimens for the end users. It hails from Ontario, Canada, and is written
>in the "ProIV" language (spelling? I've never seen it written; I was told
>this over the phone). Systematic is a client/server application, and
>requires a Microsoft server (NT4+sp? or W2K).

Make sure that they'll give you the source code of the application (sign an nda if necessary) and make sure that you can obtain a copy of the development environment - I looked on the proiv site and can't seem to find the pricing.

>If you care to comment on the above, I'm all ears. Ever heard of ProIV? Is
>this good, or bad, or indifferent?

It seems to be fairly impressive in terms of supported environments - I'll ask about this on the Borland groups, there's bound to be someone there who knows about it.

I would only say that I have never heard of it - bear in mind that the more mainstream it is, the more chance of being able to find programmers competent in the environment.

>The prior, outgoing application was custom written. I prefer to avoid that.

Hmm.... depends on what it does and how customisable your client wants it to be and is prepared to pay.

When you say a "rental" application, what exactly do you mean? Is it essentially a POS for the rental industry? What does your client rent out?

>Given that the two offerings I have reviewed promise to be "highly
>configurable by the user," with "additional customization available by the
>manufacturer,"

Which will cost money?

> I doubt this application needs to be written from scratch.
>There are many rental companies out there, and I expect the path is blazed
>already.

I'd say that you could probably get one out there with source - I would insist on this if I were you - if you had the source of your Clipper app, it would be relatively easy to port it to another environment (like Delphi...).

Paul... Received on Sun Nov 25 2001 - 15:42:49 CET