Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!amdahl!rtech!billc@rtech.UUCP From: billc@rtech.UUCP (Bill Coffin) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Parsing Query Languages in the Client or Server Message-ID: <3721@rtech.rtech.com> Date: 28 Sep 89 18:44:46 GMT References: <811@metaphor.Metaphor.COM> Sender: news@rtech.rtech.com Lines: 25 From article <811@metaphor.Metaphor.COM>, by philf@xymox.metaphor.com (Phil Fernandez): >> write a parser and port it everywhere. If you want VARs and others to >> get involved, it behooves you to support a non-befuddling interface. > > Wait a minute. Metaphor was perfectly successful in writing a SQL > parser for BLI. No one at Metaphor decided it was too hard; ... Yes, and Metaphor did a great job. Several other customers wrote frontends. Boeing did one even before BLI did. However, the argument stands. Most potential VARs were not willing to enter into that kind of development investment to gamble on a new company offering a worthy but controversial technology. BLI started with no front-end parsers. With a few exceptions, VARs were overwhelmingly uninterested. BLI then wrote a few parsers for demo purposes to try to show potential VARs how easy it was. It soon became obvious that, again with a few notable exceptions, no-one was biting, so BLI cleaned up some of the demo stuff and offered it as a product set. Eventually, BLI had a portable (but minimal) frontend product. However, this was an afterthought -- the original philosophy of the company founders was that the BLI product was some sort of smart disk drive. billc@rtech.uucp ( or, if you must, {sun,pyramid,mtxinu,amdahl}!rtech!billc ) <> <> <>