PowerHouse on OpenVMS

[Whittall, Conrad]

Greetings listers,

Let me start by saying that anyone not involved with PowerHouse on OpenVMS
can delete this message immediately (unless you're very curious). For those
dealing with PowerHouse on OpenVMS, please read on...

Many of you will be aware of the plans for PowerHouse 4GL 8.30 on OpenVMS.
Since we want to make this version a smooth upgrade path for all of our
OpenVMS customers, regardless of the version currently being used, we are
planning to build and test the 8.30 release in exactly the same environment
that we currently use for PowerHouse 4GL 7.10G, 8.10C and 8.20D -- namely
OpenVMS 6.2 on both Alpha and VAX architectures. As with these releases, we
will further test PowerHouse 4GL 8.30 on OpenVMS 7.1, and rely on Compaq's
claims of upward compatibility for OpenVMS 7.2 (which we know is already
successfully being used by some customers for 7.10G, 8.10C and 8.20D).

Now that development of PowerHouse 4GL 8.30 is almost complete (hopefully
with testing commencing after the holiday season) I need your assistance to
help us decide what the base build/test environment should be for PowerHouse
4GL 8.40. This is irrespective of any new features that may go into this
release.

The policy that Cognos maintained for many years was to build and test our
products on the operating system and database versions prior to the current
release (n-1), with additional testing on the current versions (n). As
customers demanded a stable environment throughout the Y2K period we relaxed
this policy -- so that customers were not forced into an o/s or database
upgrade simply to adopt a new version of PowerHouse. This has resulted in
the current situation where we are now a long way behind the versions of o/s
and databases supported by the vendors.

With the PowerHouse 4GL 8.4 series of releases (8.40 for OpenVMS, 8.41 for
Windows NT/2000, 8.43 for UNIX and 8.49 for MPE/iX) we would like to return
to our previous policy -- building and testing on the n-1 releases of o/s
and databases. What I would like to know from you is whether this would be
acceptable and/or desirable in your environment.

The first issue that needs to be dealt with is that of the actual hardware.
Many of our OpenVMS customers have already upgraded from VAX to Alpha
servers and, as many will be aware, Compaq are no longer accepting orders
for VAX hardware. For anyone still running PowerHouse on VAX, I am
particularly interested in hearing what plans, including timescales, you
might have to upgrade to AlphaServers. And if you do not plan to move to
Alpha, why not? If you plan to stay on VAX beyond the end of 2001, what
version of o/s and database do you plan to be using at the end of 2001?

Based on information published on their Web sites by Compaq, Oracle and
Sybase (relating to their planned product release schedules) the currently
proposed build/test environment for PowerHouse 4GL 8.40 is:

   - OpenVMS 7.2 (7.2-1 for Alpha)
   - Oracle Rdb 7.0.6
   - Oracle 8i Release 2 (a.k.a. version 8.1.5)
   - Sybase SQL Server 10.0.4 (Alpha only)

PowerHouse 4GL 8.40 will additionally be tested with:

   - OpenVMS 7.3
   - Oracle Rdb 8.0
   - Oracle 8i Release 3 (a.k.a. version 8.1.6)
   - Sybase SQL Server 11.0.3.3 (Alpha only)

Regardless of whether you are running on Alpha or VAX I would appreciate
your comments on these proposals. Please send your comments to me
personally, not the list, at mailto:conrad.whittall@cognos.com, with
"PowerHouse on OpenVMS" in the subject field of your message to help me
filter the incoming messages.

Thank you.

Best regards,
Conrad

Conrad Whittall
Marketing Manager, Application Development Tools, Cognos Incorporated

Developer productivity never goes out of style!

For details of the Cognos PowerHouse family of high-productivity
development tools for robust Web, Windows and terminal-based business
applications on OpenVMS just look here, http://www.cognos.com/openvms.
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