Steve I think you're possibly out of date in your view of the database - again, not wanting to be confrontational but this is an important point that you raise.
I've also used MV for many years, but for the vast majority of that it has been as part of a client/server or similar platform. If you're using MSSQL, you still end up coding stored procedures in TSQL - which is truly archaic. The only difference is that you *have* to use other languages on the client side to make up for the lack of inherent functionality. Over the years I've used UniVerse with VB, ASP, Java, Delphi, PHP, VB.net, C#, ASP.Net and I'm now journeying into Silverlight. There is, and for the last 20 years has been, no good reason to limit the database by your choice of language. With the APIs available, you can code in whatever you like. BTW I gave up F correlatives as soon as I moved to UniVerse - that's what I descriptors are for .. and I haven't used ED for serious development for almost 20 years. I use my own autodoc style, and have a parser that uses that to assemble documentation. These things are not platform limitations. On another specific point, I actually prefer the fact that Universe and UniData statements support Else and On Error as opposed to exception handling. I've seen too many C# projects where exception handling was - pardon the pun - very badly handled, bubbling exceptions up but not finally treating them correctly. java may be retentive in the extreme, but at least it forces you to handle exceptions - just about the only thing in that language I wish would be added to C# (even as an option). The language syntax hasn't evolved on the U2 platforms, but the functionality avilable has, which is the important thing. There are other interesting moves with Pick/Basic outside the U2 space - take a look at what is happening with QM, for example. They have added some OO features to the language that seem genuinely useful. Perhaps we should petition IBM to add something similar, but I don't think a rewrite of the language is necessary so long as the hooks are in place to call into UniVerse or UniData from the outside world. No, the reason why so many UniVerse and UniData sites look and feel archaic is because they are. People simply haven't taken full advantage of the features, and developers keep within their comfort zone. And management sees a working system and rarely spends the money. It's not the database that is limited, it's the imagination of those who pay for it. Brian _______________________________________________ U2-Users mailing list [email protected] http://listserver.u2ug.org/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
