Re: Informix <==> WWW

> 
> > it's also true that GSQL is so generic, it provides no back-end at all...
> > so you have to write your own. For Oracle, I wrote a back-end over
> > one year ago and then found there were better and more flexible solutions.
> The GSQL package that I dl'd (http://base.ncsa.uiuc.edu:1234/gsqlsrc/gsql.tar)
> included Oracle, Sybase and Interbase backends. The Oracle backend from James
> Pitkow works fine for me. Its not perfect, but neither is Forms4 and I have to
> pay for that.

Oh well, I must have stopped at the first release of GSQL...which was not 
flexible enough for me, because you had to reformulate your queries in 
some unnatural way to fit them in the scripts that would format the HTML
page with your results...it was *technically* inflexible.
 My solution, at the time, was to write a distributed application where
the interfaces to the database(s) were encapsulated in specialized agents (so 
you could have a Sybase specialist, an Oracle specialist etc.) and then 
you would define queries and HTML templates separately, so they wouldn't
mess with each other. Sort of an extended GSQL...
 Anyway. I agree that sticking to one proprietary solution is not a great idea
(although I've been working with WOW and the cgi is so simple that you
can really rewrite it if you don't like it... ;-> ). Also, I'm not endorsing
Oracle in any way (quite the opposite, actually). And yes, I already
congratulated the WOW authors for their work..;-)

> I'm not sure how far Oracle Corp should be commended for its work with Web-
> based solutions. This is no longer pioneer technology and very soon if you're
> a database manufacturer and dont have a web interface, then you'll no longer
> considered be a major player. WOW, as I understand it, was developed by 
> Oracle employees on their own time. Now, they are really the ones to be 
> congratulated and not just for being talented software developers, but for
> seeing the enormous opportunity that management had missed.

So again, what about the Informix management and their solution?! (I
don't use Informix and I'm not familiar with their tools).

Paolo

paolo1@bellcore.com

Received on Wednesday, 28 June 1995 16:44:26 UTC