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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Vaughn, I hear you. I have been working in this language since 1986 full time and I love it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>The other problem is, management does not want to invest in Powerhouse anymore as they seem to think it is a dying language and resources are getting harder to find. Even though there are still COBOL programs out there still churning out data tirelessly. Programmers coming out of school have never heard of a 4<sup>th</sup> generation language, they would rather work in a 3gl with a WEB front end. Give me a common data dictionary any day.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Our own company is converting to Oracle on Windows/Linux to get off the antiquated hardware.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Once we are fully converted, I expect to start replacing QTP extracts with Oracle stored procedures. Then replace screens with and HTML version that simply gets the data.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Your comment about a 31 file limitation in Qdesign is still correct, but with the addition of Cursors and database Views, I have been able to bypass that issue completely.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>POW (or the Architect as it was replaced with on HP3000) was a very useful tool, I created my own to maintain the dictionary and spit out PDL code.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>As far as I know, MySQL is the only worthwhile database that is not supported and since Oracle now owns the rights to it, I think it should be added.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>PH screens are old, QKView screens are a little better…more like Windows 98, but users still need to know specific commands.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I do have some grey hair….thanks for that.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I believe, at the end of the day:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>1)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There are only going to be 3 databases left; Oracle, MySQL and SQL Server.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>2)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There are only going to be 2 O/S left; Windows and Linux because they can be implemented rather inexpensively.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoListParagraph style='text-indent:-18.0pt;mso-list:l1 level1 lfo2'><![if !supportLists]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><span style='mso-list:Ignore'>3)<span style='font:7.0pt "Times New Roman"'> </span></span></span><![endif]><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>There will only be one look and feel for all applications; Web<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>If Cognos wanted to get back into the running, they would have to follow these assumptions and revamp (combine) all the products into 1 suite and stop charging licenses for Runtime.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>They would have a leg up on all these other tools with the dictionary, but I don’t see this happening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ken<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><div style='border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0cm 0cm 0cm'><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>From:</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> powerh-l-bounces+ken.langendock=rogers.com@lists.sowder.com [mailto:powerh-l-bounces+ken.langendock=rogers.com@lists.sowder.com] <b>On Behalf Of </b>JA Vaughn Smith<br><b>Sent:</b> May 1, 2012 10:11 AM<br><b>To:</b> powerh-l@lists.sowder.com<br><b>Subject:</b> [Bulk] Is there a future for PowerHouse?<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><p class=MsoNormal><o:p> </o:p></p><p class=MsoNormal>I have been back on an OpenVMS system using PowerHouse, (PH), for 4 months now. In that time, I have been re-amazed at the things I can do with Qdesign, QTP and Quiz. Before this year, I did some work learning PHP and Python with mySQL, typical Windows development tools. PH has them beat from a productivity standpoint, and not by just a bit either.<br><br>Realistically, what future does PowerHouse have? The products are 30+ years old but they still perfrom quite well on the right hardware. With the exception of Unix and Windows, they run on antiquated hardware, though. The HP 3000 MPE is done; HP offers help to move these sites to Unix or Windows platforms. OpenVMS sites can move to HP Itanium machines which are about 12 years old and have a very uncertain future. PH used to run on IBM AS/400. What's up with that these days? Unix and Windows remain viable platforms for PowerHouse deployment since you can actually buy modern servers from various manufacturers.<br><br>What about the future of PowerHouse itself? IBM has stated that PH will remain supported as long asit makes business sense. That said, there are no future updates planned at this time. The longstanding problems remain: <o:p></o:p></p><ul type=disc><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>only 31 files in a Qdesign screen<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>popular databases are unsupported, (mySQL, others?)<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>PH Windows uses ODBC 2.5 from 1994. Version 3.8 is now current.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>POW, the automated interface to the PDL dictionary, ships with OpenVMS only<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>PH screens look old. Users must learn specific keyboard commands<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>Web interface must be done with the PH Web add on which generates code that usually requires further modifications to address design requirements.<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>poor runtime error notifications<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>very limited number of PH sites, and declining<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>extremely limited number of Axiant sites<o:p></o:p></li><li class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto;mso-list:l0 level1 lfo1'>many, (most, all?), PH programmers have grey hair<o:p></o:p></li></ul><p>It is my belief that IBM has a great product with PowerHouse. I also believe that they barely understand this fact and that the corporation purchased Cognos for the great business intelligence tools,mainly. The PowerHouse business has to have seen substantial decline for IBM over the years. How many more sites can convert to other development environments, reducing IBM's revenue, before they shut down Cognos?<o:p></o:p></p><p>Sincerely,<br>Vaughn Smith<br>Canada<o:p></o:p></p></div></body></html>