Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!lll-winken!netsys!lsicom2!oid!dsinc!wells!mdi386!bruce From: bruce@mdi386.UUCP (Bruce A. McIntyre) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Moving to the Unix environment from Clipper and MS-DOeSn't. Summary: Easy move from dBASE to PROGRESS (but you'll never go back) Message-ID: <156@mdi386.UUCP> Date: 16 Oct 89 13:45:46 GMT References: <5809@decvax.dec.com> Organization: Wells Computer Systems Corp., Levittown, Pa. 19058 Lines: 39 In article <5809@decvax.dec.com>, f0057@uafhp.uucp (James Everett Ward) writes: > We are looking into projects that recquire multiuser ability and multitasking > would just be a boon. I desire to move into the Unix world. What would be > the easiest transition for a team of Clipper programmers (dBASE III+) as far > as programming languages go? I have heard good things about Informix. Would > we be at home or lost? Any suggestions? > James E. Ward We were long time developers using the dBASE language, starting back when dBASEII first showed up under CP/M. Over the years, as we kept running beyond the capabilities of the dBASE environment, we used Clipper, Foxbase, and others. However, when we went to the UNIX environment full time, we found that we needed a real, robust, fast 4GL and DBMS to develop with. We explored Oracle, Informix 4GL, Unify Accell and others, but in the end we selected PROGRESS from Progress Software. This has proven to be a very good move. It was easy for the dBASE programmers to move to PROGRESS, once they got used to the idea of SCOPING, and the reliability and flexibility of the PROGRESS environment has allowed us to do whatever we needed without going to a "C" environment at all. PROGRESS offers both the high-level 4GL functions that an Informix 4GL does, and yet offers the lower level nit-picking stuff that is necessary to really get what you want in a appli- cation. In addition, the ability to move the exact same source code to such a wide variety of platforms has proven to be a real market advantage. The reliability and speed of PROGRESS have proven to be even more than we hoped, and the new multi-threaded server has allowed us to move to very large applications and databases with no degredation in speed. The latest system under development will be working with 2.5 gigabyte databases for insurance policy processing, to replace a system that was running on a Honywell Mainframe... Just happy users and developers, bruce -- ========================================================================= Bruce A. McIntyre, McIntyre Designs, Inc. VOICE(215)322-1895 143 Bridgetown Pike, Langhorne, Pa. 19047 DATA (215)357-2915 {wells|lgnp1}!mdi386!bruce bruce@mdi386 tbit+