Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!reed!chaffee From: chaffee@reed.UUCP (Alex Chaffee) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer Subject: Re: Front Ends Summary: Look into MacWorkstation Message-ID: <13316@reed.UUCP> Date: 16 Sep 89 16:57:29 GMT References: Reply-To: chaffee@reed.UUCP (Alex Chaffee) Organization: Reed College, Portland OR Lines: 33 In article md28+@andrew.cmu.edu (Michael David Dosik) writes: > >I've been delegated the responsibilities of researching the >possibilities of installing a front end user interface on the Macintosh >for Ingres running on a mainframe, a VAX I believe. I don't know many >of the details yet but if anyone has any ideas as to where I should >start looking for such a beast, i.e. Hypercard, etc., of if anyone has >had any experience with something similar and would like to share their >experiences I'd really appreciate it. Thanks in advance. > > >md28@andrew.cmu.edu >Michael Dosik >Administrative Systems >Carnegie Mellon Now, I don't know what "Ingres" is... but as far as Macintosh front-ends for mainframe programs go, the first place to look is MacWorkstation. This is a set of programs which run on the Mac and respond to commands from the mainframe by putting up custom windows and dialogs and that sort of thing, and communicate back to the mainframe in response. I've read through one of the manuals, and it looks pretty straightforward to use. Of course, I've never _programmed_ with the thing... but a friend has, and he says the hardest thing to master is not the user interface, but the communications. It should be available from APDA, and it surely entails some licensing fees. "Gee, Batman -- is there anything you _don't_ know?" "Why, yes, Robin. Several things, in fact." -- Alex Chaffee chaffee@reed.UUCP ____________________