Re: Des 2K across Mac & NT

Ken Friday wrote:
>
> Is anyone out there running Developer 2000 across both NT and PowerMac
> clients ? My company has commited to the product on NT but have a number
> of Mac users who may want access to applications.
>
> I have concerns about consistent versioning (e.g. How far behind is the
> Mac port ?) and general compatability.
>
> Thank You (In advance)
> Ken F.

We are currently running Developer/2000 on Windows 3.1 ( soon to convert to NT 3.51) and PowerMac. I am able to work off of a single set of source ( *.fmb, *.rdf ) files and generate to both environments. The biggest problem is that you have to design to the least-common-denominator GUI (Mac), and that can limit your layouts. In general, GUI objects (lists, buttons, etc. ) must be made larger than you would normally make them for Windows.

Also, if you are using iconic buttons, and one form can call ( or open ) another, thenyou must have all of the icons for any called forms in the calling form (on Mac, they are bound to the file as resources. I use a single starting form with all of the application icons attached to it.

There are also limitations specific to the Mac platform, e.g., no OLE, no VBX/OCX, no right mouse button.

I am also concerned about consistent versioning. At Oracle Open World, they demoed version 1.4W of Developer/2000, which will enable generation of Web/Javabased  Forms application with (they said!) NO code changes. In talking with a developement manager in the campgrounds, it seems as though this is where they'd like to see all Mac users migrating.

Bottom line, it can be done; there are limitations; and eventually the versions will probably prevent you from upgrading you WinNT environment for compatibility reasons ( probably V 2.0 ).

Good Luck!

-- 
Howard Gluckman
Data Architect
U S WEST Communications

Any opinons expressed are mine, and are not necessarily the opinon of U S WEST