Re: Unix, OS/2, Windows NT, GUI

>In article <CMM.0.90.2.733688289.hkr_at_ull.ifi.uio.no> hkr_at_ifi.uio.no (Hans Kristian Ruud) writes:
>>
>>My employer is contemplating to upgrade from MS-DOS to one of
>>
>> 1) a Unix platform,
>>
>> 2) an OS/2 (version 1.3;) platform,
>>
>> 3) a Windows NT platform.
>>
>>The Windows NT version is not yet released (as far as I understand).
>>Any comments about expected release date, reliability etc.?
>>
>>Also, is it possible under OS/2 to write programs that use the
>>graphic capabilities of the Presentation Manager to access the
>>database ( we have some rather specialized requirements)?
>>
>>Or, under Unix, can we write programs that employ Motif as a user
>>interface?
>
Hans:

At our department we have a mixture of DEC-Ultrix- and OS/2-machines (the 32bit version of OS/2) running ORACLE's database, tools and CASE-system.

We run on both platforms the database and all of the CASE-tools (including the graphical designer parts).

For our classes we use e.g. the Ultrix-database and have other DEC Ultrix- and OS/2-machines running as clients against it, utilizing the client-software on the local machine (e.g. the OS/2-Oracle-tools, including the OS/2-part of the designer).

In our case we utilize IBM's TCP/IP 1.2.1 (with the latest CSD's) for OS/2 and installing Oracle's part of it went smoothly. With the T-option in the config.ora file you can easily determine with which database-server in the net you would like to deal with the local client software.

In our department we have been using the original 16-bit-version of ORACLE, although it was not officially supported by ORACLE, yet it worked fine. In the meantime a 32-bit version of the database for OS/2 appeared and it improves (I would say at least by 50%) the database stuff, although we did not run benchmarks so far. On 486-machines with 16MB of memory you can nicely have all the TCP/IP-network stuff up, the local ORACLE-database running and using the client-software, including the CASE-stuff. Additionally you **can** work on the same machine with OS/2-, DOS- and Windows-application at the same time.

One interesting, upcoming thing (I do not know whether it is available already) is an ORACLE-product, which allows Windows- and OS/2-programs to interact with the database via DDE.

Unfortunately, the OS/2-version of the database does not have a (highly needed) REXX-interface; but then again, that is a problem only, if you used to work with IBM-databases utilizing REXX to interface with them (very easy, probably the easiest way for a procedural language to interact with a relational database), but can become a problem, as more and more OS/2-applications will appear with REXX-interfaces (which are much stabler and usually faster than context-dependent, risky DDE-interfaces) as an alternative to their proprietary makro languages.

All in all, if you are used to DOS and have the appropriate machines, go for OS/2 2.x, it is worth it. You even keep the same DOS-commands in OS/2's CLI. Due to the preemptive multitasking nature of OS/2 you can do different work on the very same machine, very much like you can do on Unix-machines, of course.

---rony
P.S.: In respect to ORACLE-products, one **very** nice feature of ORACLE is, that they managed to keep all the commands (utilities, scripts) the same on both platforms (probably on all, I do not know, but would expect from what we have seen). It is astonishing at fearst, and therafter simple very funny, to run an OS/2-based ORACLE-script against a database residing on a Unix-machine. P.P.S.: Regarding writing PM-apps with access to Oracle, yes, this is possible. Again ORACLE ported the appropriate tools (e.g. PRO*C, OCI) to OS/2. Additionally you have import filters for Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, ASCII-delimited format.
Regarding writing for Unix X-Windows, yes that is possible too (in that case try to locate the XWafe-libraries for easier access to X-Windows). P.P.P.S.: The OS/2-database plus all utilities with examples needs a minimum of 20MB hard-disk-space. Adding the OS/2-CASE-system and adjust the database accordingly, you would need to add at least another 80MB. The database-code needs appr. 4MB of memory for itself (including buffers). If you do not intend to run the database locally then subtract 24MB (size of the minimum database with CASE, subtract 3MB = minimum without CASE). Received on Fri Apr 02 1993 - 20:57:57 CEST