Is there a place for 4GLs anymore?

[Edis, Robert]

Bob,

In the iSeries market you can include LANSA.  Although, compared to
PowerHouse it's hard to really call it a 4GL.  It's very syntactical (lots
of # signs, parenthesis, apostrophes, etc.).
Also, it is incomplete in functionality - many of the things we do in
PowerHouse require "built-in-functions", some of which are not written by or
supported by LANSA.  We had to write an RPG routine to handle a binary
value!  Also, things are so complicated since it is "client/server"
development - things have to be checked out and checked back in.  Many
things that take a few minutes in PowerHouse (backup a file, change a field
length, restore the file, etc.) take hours in LANSA.  This client/server
arrangement also causes tons of problems with authorities and permissions,
both on the iSeries and the network.  LANSA does provide a GUI interface,
however, and its' repository is much more powerful than the PH data
dictionary.

Still, I can only dream of what PowerHouse could have been if Cognos had not
gotten so infatuated with BI.

Hope this helps.

Wesley Welsh
Greenville County Government
Greenville, South Carolina

-----Original Message-----
From: Edis, Robert [mailto:Robert.Edis@blistex.com]
Sent: Monday, May 05, 2003 3:45 PM
To: Powerh-L (E-mail)
Subject: Is there a place for 4GLs anymore?


Dear colleagues, two questions if I may?

1. Is there a place for 4GLs in the IT industry anymore?  At least for
independent products (i.e. excludes Oracle Developer).  A good definition of
what a 4GL is might help.

2. What are the products that compete in the 4GL market space with
PowerHouse/Axiant?

In regards to the latter I know of:

Oracle Developer
Forte (has does this one compare to PH?)
Speedware
Progress

but I believe there are quite a few others.

Regards,

Blue


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