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From: tim@mtxinu.UUCP (Tim Wood)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Quality of Database Products
Message-ID: <491@mtxinu.UUCP>
Date: Sun, 13-Sep-87 22:15:15 EDT
Article-I.D.: mtxinu.491
Posted: Sun Sep 13 22:15:15 1987
Date-Received: Tue, 15-Sep-87 04:14:17 EDT
References: <3265@blia.BLI.COM>
Reply-To: tim@mtxinu.UUCP (Tim Wood)
Followup-To: <432@mtxinu.UUCP>
Distribution: comp.databases
Organization: Sybase, Inc.
Lines: 36
Summary: rehosting technology: the crown jewels?


In reply to: forrest@blia.BLI.COM (Jon Forrest) <3265@blia.BLI.COM>

> ... I see Oracle, Ingres,
> Sybase, and other systems coming out in many different operating system
> environments. ...  What concerns me is how such systems are written to
> work in all these different environments.  Specifically, how much code
> is portable and how much has to be rewritten for each environment?
> ...
> One of the nice features I like about Britton Lee (which I'd like
> even if I weren't an employee) is the fact that about 80% (a guess)
> of our host software code is portable across all environments we
> support. 

don't you recognize that rehosting technology is some of the most
sensitive there is in a software organization?  Being able to leverage
software across several hardware environments is a critical
internal feature: one that is difficult to conceptualize, design and
develop, and has major implications for the life cycle.  No engineer
who understands the value of such proprietary techniques should do more
than wave his/her arms (in _very_ wide circles) to answer your
questions.

Since BLI is a competitor to Sybase (actually, we were started by
some disaffected BLI-ers who had a better idea), I ain't sayin' nuttin'!
I will observe that since BLI software is tied to single-vendor
BLI hardware, BLI porting issues are probably insignificant compared
those faced by Sybase, Oracle and RTI; these companies run between
five and 15(?) different environments.  I understand that Britton-Lee
actually runs (or is about to run) on other than the 16-bit Z8000!
But, from how many vendors can you buy this new machine?

-Tim Wood
{{ihnp4!ptsfa},pyramid,{uunet,ucbvax}!mtxinu}!sybase!tim
-- 
{{ihnp4!ptsfa},pyramid,{uunet,ucbvax}!mtxinu}!sybase!tim