Re: Recommendations please (Oracle - Mac client server)

We're doing a fair amount of client development on Omnis 7 v3.1, marketed by Blyth Software.

Since it's interpreted, the program code ports easily between Mac and Windows -- a Unix port is currently in Beta.

The Omnis frontend will talk to many backends (across many middleware layers).

Omnis facilitates rapid development without sacrificing too much in runtime efficiency.

It has only one drawback -- it needs 5MB to run + an average of 0.5MB per concurrent library -- though this should not prove a problem on a PowerMac with 16-32MB RAM. This compares favorably with Oracle Forms and Acius 4D.

Regardless of which frontend you decide on, consider moving to a table-driven, stored procedure-driven model as this shifts code (and processing) to the backend. This enhances security, facilitates revision control and reuse, and simplifies ports to new platforms (or new frontends).

We currently run multiple front ends (Omnis on Mac/Windows, SQL*Plus, C/PERL, SmallTalk and proprietary Voice Response) against a common Oracle database. Our client base is 70% Mac, 20% Windows, and 10% Unix. [I am hopeful that the corporation will gravitate toward a target mix of 80% PowerMac/PC, 20% Unix over the next two years.] Received on Wed Jan 25 1995 - 19:09:55 CET