Re: HELP me choose a database server!

In <dave.385.2EBDD42B_at_splat.paxnet.com.au> David Connors writes:
>
>I have been looking at Visual Age but the documentation that IBM sent out to me
>wasn't the best - and they couldn't supply any demonstration applications
>either. I guess I will have to contact them further (in person).
>(Unless, of course, you have some sample run-time or compiled applications you
>want to send me. ;-)

There are samples in the Visual Age User's Guide and Reference manual. There should be also marketing deliverables available with code samples, demo's etc. If you like I can ask the Visual Age folks to contact you.

>
>>There is also a UNIX (AIX) version of DB2: DB2/6000.
>>
>>Finally, you seem to have chosen for DOS/Windows clients.
>>Although these might work in your case, it's based on a product (DOS) that's near to be replaced
>>by real 32-bit multitasking Operating Systems like OS/2.
>
>That's correct, and I'm aware of the advantages of OS/2 (I am an ex OS/2 user
>myself), though there are some problems. Probably the most important reason
>for sticking with Windows is the sake of simplicity. Most of the users
>only use Windows for Word Processing or Excel. If we chose the
>OS/2 platform we are seriously limited in the types of applications we can
>run. The performance of Word for Windows 6.0 under Warp is NOT ideal (well,
>worse than 3.11 anyway), and the OS/2 solutions (AmiPro, et al) are quite large
>applications which don't run well in 8megs of RAM.

It depends a bit on the client hardware you are using. The faster they are and the more memory they have, the better your

Windows apps, probably even better than under DOS/W, will run.
I understand, if you don't rush to the hardware shop to order some
new machines, though. :-)

>
>Visual Age looks quite attractive, I will admit, but there are other factors
>in this equation. We do make use of OS/2's stability (I wish Warp was as
>stable as 2.11!) to supervise the industrial control PLCs around the factory
>but are steering away from it for the average user.
>

Have you tried out WARP GA yet? It's quite stable. I'd rather give that to my end users than any DOS based system. They will be much more productive, even when some apps run a bit slower on their hardware. While typing this, I have 2 3270 sessions, one telnet to the IBM OS/2 BBS here, and am loading four different documents in as many sessions with Gopher. All this apart from my DBMS stuff of course. OK, I am probably not your average user, but who knows what will happen when they discover the Internet goodies.

Regards,
Anton Versteeg - IBM - Uithoorn Netherlands - TEAMOS2 NL Received on Tue Nov 08 1994 - 14:00:52 CET