Repost in Plain Text: Cognos ADT Update & Plans

[Whittall, Conrad]

A number of people have commented on the problems they have trying to read
HTML messages. Now that I've been able to persuade MS Outlook to stop
sending my messages to the list as HTML I thought that I should repost my
ADT update message for those who unfortunately couldn't read the original.

If you saw the original posting you can stop here and delete this message.
For everyone else, read on...
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As promised yesterday here is an update on where the Cognos PowerHouse
family of Application Development Tools is today...and where it is headed
tomorrow.
Year 2000 Compliant & Friendly
Today we have certified Year 2000 compliant releases of PowerHouse 4GL,
containing the new Year 2000 "friendly" features, currently available on
MPE/iX, OpenVMS, UNIX, Windows NT Server and OS/400. These include 8.19C on
MPE/iX, 7.10G and 8.10C on OpenVMS (for both Alpha and VAX), 8.13D on UNIX,
8.11C on Windows NT Server, and 6.07F on OS/400. Of these, only the Compaq
Tru64 UNIX (or Digital UNIX if you prefer) version of 8.13D has yet to ship.
Additionally a certified Year 2000 compliant release of Axiant 4GL, our
visual PowerHouse development environment, is also available - version 2.03.
This version of Axiant 4GL also includes the Year 2000 "friendly"
enhancements found in the PowerHouse 4GL 8.1x releases.
Versions of PowerHouse Architect compatible with these PowerHouse 4GL
releases are in the works - with the MPE/iX 8.19 version having just been
released and due to ship back to supported customers soon. Architect 7.10G
is due to be available for OpenVMS (Alpha and VAX) in the next week or so,
and Architect 6.07F for OS/400 is scheduled for mid-April release. Again,
supported customers will be shipped these releases as soon as they become
available.
InQuizitive 7.10G for OpenVMS is scheduled to be available at the end of
this month, with the 8.19C version for MPE/iX due to follow at the end of
May. The 8.13D releases for our various UNIX platforms will be phased
starting in June. Unfortunately I do not yet have a planned release date for
InQuizitive 6.07F on OS/400.
Why 7.10G and 8.10C PowerHouse 4GL for OpenVMS?
We originally planned for 8.10C to be the recommended upgrade path for our
OpenVMS users on 7.10F (and earlier) releases. It would contain the Year
2000 "friendly" features, would be certified Year 2000 compliant, and would
begin to introduce to the common PowerHouse Series 8 code stream the most
frequently used VMS-specific features currently only available in the 7.10
code stream.
For those of you who don't know, PowerHouse 4GL Series 8 is a single-source
version of PowerHouse, based on the common-source 7.23/7.29 version shared
by UNIX and MPE/iX and subsequently merged with the Axiant Server 1.2
product. As it originated in the UNIX/MPE world it did not contain any
support for OpenVMS-specific features or data types.
However, due to numerous requests from our many OpenVMS customers for the
Year 2000 "friendly" features as quickly as possible, a decision was made to
put those features into the PowerHouse 7.10 code stream, rather than
delaying the 8.10C release until we had put in sufficient OpenVMS-specific
features to make that release a viable upgrade path for the 7.10 customers.
We also decided to continue with a generic 8.10C version on OpenVMS, for
those customers seeking Oracle or Sybase support, or wanting to develop and
deploy Axiant 4GL applications against an OpenVMS server.
So, to confirm, PowerHouse 4GL 7.10G is the currently recommended upgrade
path for our OpenVMS users on 7.10F or earlier that are looking for Year
2000 compliance and the new Year 2000 features. PowerHouse 4GL 8.10C is
recommended for customers needing Oracle or Sybase support on OpenVMS, or
who want to develop and deploy Axiant 4GL client/server applications against
an OpenVMS server - but who are willing (for now) to go without the tight
integration with the OpenVMS environment which PowerHouse 4GL 7.10G
currently provides.
PowerHouse 4GL 8.2xC & PowerHouse Web 2.2x
Looking to the near future, PowerHouse 4GL 8.2 will be the next major
version to be released. It will support development of an HTML interface to
QUICK screens, and deployment of applications developed or modified in this
way by using the new PowerHouse Web run-time environment.
We plan to release PowerHouse 4GL 8.2 in two phases. The initial phase will
consist of 8.29C for MPE/iX, 8.20C for OpenVMS, 8.23C for UNIX and 8.21C for
Windows NT Server. All of these releases will provide the development
enhancements needed in QDESIGN to create the HTML interface for Web
deployment. Additionally the MPE/iX version will provide support for
creation of IMAGE jumbo datasets through QUTIL, and the Windows NT version
will also provide a true ISAM file system as an alternative to using Xbase
files or a relational database. The UNIX, OpenVMS and Windows NT versions
are also likely to include the IBASE database type for InterBase support, in
addition to the IBSQL interface to this type of database already provided in
PowerHouse Series 8.
To access these applications via the HTML interface will require the initial
release of PowerHouse Web - 2.29C for MPE/iX, 2.20C for OpenVMS, 2.23C for
UNIX or 2.21C for Windows NT Server.
The PowerHouse Web solution provides for very flexible web application
deployment. I would encourage you to review the information on the Cognos
web site at <http://www.cognos.com/phweb> for further details.
PowerHouse 8.21 and PowerHouse Web 1.21 for Windows NT Server, together with
the equivalent 8.23/1.23 combination for HP-UX, are currently in second
round beta testing. (Note that the beta versions of PowerHouse Web are
numbered 1.2x, but the release versions will be 2.2x.) These platforms will
be joined in beta next week by the 8.20/1.20 combination on OpenVMS. The
MPE/iX beta, using 8.29/1.29, is likely to start in mid-April.
We currently estimate that PowerHouse 4GL 8.21C and PowerHouse Web 2.21C for
Windows NT Server, together with PowerHouse 4GL 8.23C and PowerHouse Web
2.23C for HP-UX, will be released in late April. PowerHouse 8.20C and
PowerHouse Web 2.20C for OpenVMS should follow just a few weeks later in
mid-May. While on MPE/iX the PowerHouse 4GL 8.29C and PowerHouse Web 2.29C
production releases should be available in June. Following the HP-UX release
in April our other UNIX platforms, including Solaris, AIX, Compaq Tru64
UNIX, DG/UX and SCO OpenServer, will be release in parallel with the OpenVMS
and MPE/iX versions in an order determined by customer demand.
Each of the PowerHouse 4GL 8.2 releases will automatically be shipped, as
they become available, to our supported customers who have PowerHouse full
development licenses, or as soon the PowerHouse Web Evaluator's Guide has
been completed, whichever occurs later. Why wait for the guide? Simply
because we'd like to ship the corresponding version of PowerHouse Web 2.2
along with PowerHouse 4GL and give you the opportunity to try PowerHouse Web
for yourself...initially with an application that we will supply on the
PowerHouse Web media, but then with your own data using your existing data
definitions. And why only to full development customers? Simply because
there are no enhancements in these 8.2C releases that benefit our run-time
only or run-time with reporting customers. The 8.2C releases will be
available on-request to other supported customers, as they may contain
bug-fixes that those customers will benefit from.
Remember, the certified Year 2000 compliant PowerHouse 4GL releases
mentioned above (6.07F, 7.10G, 8.10C, 8.11C, 8.13D and 8.19C) will be
receiving full development (i.e. bug-fix) support until at least the end of
June 2000...and so there is no pressing need to upgrade to a later
PowerHouse 4GL release unless you want the new functionality which these
releases bring. And of course you can always continue to use the certified
Year 2000 compliant release as your production version of PowerHouse, while
installing a newer release to become familiar with the new features, and
perhaps to start developing new or replacement applications for
implementation sometime in 2000.
PowerHouse 4GL 8.2xD
The second phase of the PowerHouse 8.2 roll-out will include 8.29D for
MPE/iX and 8.20D for OpenVMS. The 8.29D release for MPE/iX is to introduce
support for Btree in IMAGE databases, while 8.20D for OpenVMS will begin to
introduce the most commonly used VMS-specific features and data types (e.g.
VMSDATE) from PowerHouse 7.10.
Where possible we are looking to implement these VMS-specific features in a
generic manner. So, for example, we are looking at ways to implement the VMS
Mailbox functionality across all of the PowerHouse Series 8 platforms. The
methods chosen to implement such a feature will obviously be
platform-specific, but the syntax to access that functionality from within
PowerHouse will be kept generic (as far as possible).
Ultimately we would like all of our OpenVMS customers to upgrade to
PowerHouse Series 8. The advantages of a single source code product cannot
be underestimated. This will enable us to provide wider database support,
faster turnaround of bug-fixes, as well as faster and more consistent
implementation of new features across all of the supported PowerHouse
platforms.
Bearing in mind our desire not to create any upgrade issues which might
prevent our OpenVMS customers from adopting PowerHouse Series 8, and
following the discussions seen recently on this list, and I can confirm that
we are actively considering inclusion of the PHD-type dictionary in
PowerHouse Series 8. This would be in addition to the existing PDC-type
dictionary and would be available on all of those platforms capable of
supporting its terminal interface - i.e. OpenVMS, MPE/iX and UNIX.
Axiant 4GL also provides metadata maintenance capabilities through its
Windows interface. Hence our customers would be able to choose the
dictionary maintenance environment which best suits their needs. This might
be PDL source code, maintained via a text editor and loaded into either a
PDC or PHD dictionary. It might be an active PHD dictionary, maintained
through the terminal-based PowerHouse POW application. Or it might be the
object-based Axiant repository, maintained through the Windows-based Axiant
4GL developer's workbench, which provides multi-level inheritance and reuse
of element and structure definitions, together with generation and remote
compilation of PDL on PowerHouse Series 8 server platforms directly from the
Windows desktop.
The timeframe for delivery of the PowerHouse 4GL 8.2D releases is probably
September/October of this year.
Axiant 4GL 3.x
The current Axiant 4GL bears no relationship to the original Axiant 1.x
product, other than sharing the same name. With the release of Axiant 4GL
2.0C we started from the ground-up building a robust and scalable 32-bit
visual development environment for PowerHouse applications. This environment
also includes tools and advice to assist with the migration and
re-deployment of PowerHouse applications to newer relational and
client/server environments.
With Axiant 4GL 2.03 (our fourth release) now available, we have achieved
great advances over previous releases in being able to deal with a legacy of
almost 20 years of PowerHouse applications, as well as being able to handle
some of the largest PowerHouse applications ever developed. However, the one
thing that we still hear is that the run-time user interface is still not
Windows-like.
Since the underlying PowerHouse processing model is not event-driven, Axiant
can never be a true event-driven application environment. However, our
Axiant 4GL 3.0 release will be the first in a series of releases aimed at
improving the run-time user interface. To begin we will provide a
point-and-click interface that maps user events to whatever PowerHouse
actions are needed to achieve what the user of the application would expect
in a Windows environment. If the default mapping provided isn't sufficient
the designer can take control, where necessary, and map other PowerHouse
actions or sets of actions to those user events.
Axiant 4GL 3.0 will also include various styles of button bars (floating,
docked, static, dynamic), together with on-going enhancements to the
development environment (snap to grid, rulers, etc.) and support for the Web
functionality being added to PowerHouse 4GL 8.2.
Axiant 4GL 3.1 will continue to build on the user interface work started in
this release with features such as tool tips for any form object (the new
toolbars will have them from the 3.0 release), and a very exciting feature
called data tips.
Axiant 4GL 3.0 is currently scheduled for release in August/September of
this year, with the 3.1 release following approximately four months later.
We hope to make Axiant 4GL the development environment of choice for all
PowerHouse developers, whether they are developing terminal-based, Windows
client/server (thin-client against a PowerHouse server or fat-client against
a database server), mobile Windows or Web-based applications.
Into The Year 2000 And Beyond
I have only been able to share with you some of our product plans through to
the end of this year. Don't worry though, we have plenty of product
enhancement requests to keep us going through many more releases of
PowerHouse 4GL - and we already have an outline plan for version 8.3 and
beyond. Axiant 4GL will continue to be enhanced as both the visual
PowerHouse development environment and as the 32-bit Windows client
environment for PowerHouse applications. And our latest addition to the
PowerHouse family - PowerHouse Web - is already proving in beta testing that
PowerHouse 4GL is simply the most productive environment in which to develop
mission-critical data-driven Web applications.
Only the PowerHouse family enables developers to deliver applications to
terminals, Windows clients and Web browsers with the productivity that
organizations need to be able to seriously tackle the applications backlog
that has continued to grow while IS have been preparing for the Year 2000.
The Cognos Application Development Tools group's mission is to ensure that
you, our customers, are ready for the Year 2000 and beyond. We aim to do
this by providing you with quality products, quality support and quality
services. By providing you with paths to new technologies and environments
that you can adopt at your own pace...while still protecting your existing
investment in both applications and developer skills. And we will do this
while providing you with world's the most productive application development
environment for mission-critical business applications on terminals, Windows
clients and Web browsers.
Sorry that this has been such a long message...but I'm sure that you
appreciate the information, and are now as excited about the future of the
PowerHouse family as all of us here at Cognos are.
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Best regards, 

Conrad 

Conrad Whittall 
Marketing Manager, Application Development Tools 
Cognos Incorporated, 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, Ontario, K1G 4K9, Canada 

Tel : + 1 (613) 738-1338 Ext.4804 
Fax : + 1 (613) 228-3149

E-mail : mailto:conrad.whittall@cognos.com  

For information on the Cognos PowerHouse family of high-productivity
development tools for mission-critical business applications visit our web
site at http://www.cognos.com/powerhouse


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