Steve, (and others who may be curious about migrating to GUI)
As one with extensive experience in development of GUI and character based
applications with the Nucleus/NRG environment, I would like to offer a rapid
2 cents worth.
You wrote:
> We are in the process of analyzing different approaches to porting our
> software to a GUI environment. We are currently looking at Uniobjects for
> Java, System Builder, jBase with ObjEx, OpenInsight and Obsydian (which I
> have yet to get information on). If you have any other ideas or have gone
> through this process, I would like to know a few things:
> 1) How is the response time with multiple windows up at the same time?
Response time to switch between windows is usually dependent on basic
factors:
a) Size of the object(s) (i.e. programs) that will be brought into "focus".
b) Speed of the "client" machine, as fast desktops are cheap these days
(1,800 mhz AMD processor system for under $300.00), a client system with a
700 mhz or better processor with adequate memory ensures rapid transition
times between modules.
c) Large modules that load data from a host system can take a few seconds to
initially load especially when large amounts of data are to be displayed.
(Compare loading of a large Excel spreadsheet to a small one).
d) Multiple objects may exist on a active desktop, some in "sleep" mode, and
others in "active" mode where the active objects come to focus more quickly.
e) As the Nucleus environment is a "smart-thin-client" environment, the only
thing that is loaded from the host system is a template describing to the
"client-manager" what and where, along with the data to be displayed.
I can safely state that you can either work hard and write code to
incorporate objects, or let the Nucleus/NRG engine do the work for you with
a far faster deployment and greatly simplified maintenance.
> 2) How did you deal with security? We need field level security.
Security in Nucleus/NRG can be controlled at the field level on a user by
user or group level. Security for any Menu, File, Command, Device etc., can
also be implemented on a user or group basis, much as exists in a unix
environment. Security can be added at design time or tightened up later as
security requirements are codified (written) without incurring any design
stage issues. There will be no problem if you desire to implement security
as an afterthought, as it is inherent in the Nucleus engine managing the
object sets.
> 3) The approach you used to convert the screens, etc.
Nucleus screen design is structured to layer on top of data definitions -
i.e. DATA DICTS. If your dictionaries are "clean" and easily read and
understood by humans - either A, S or I type, you can quickly prototype a
screen from the Nucleus shell prompt, as:
CUSTOMERFILE CUST.ID WINDOW(width,depth,column,row) @(col,row) COMPANY
ADDRESS etc.
and have a screen appear within seconds. The design phase is rather
straightforward and familiar to anyone who has used BASIC, RETRIEVE/ENGLISH
and data dictionaries. Rules can be quickly added, existing subroutines can
be called as long as the COMMON blocks don't conflict. Btree selections are
a no-brainer to implement along with intersected joins and automated
choicewindow selections.
Migrating from a hand-coded character based environment to a Rapid
Deployment environment adds many options to the design equation that were
impracticle with manual code. Adding drill-downs, pop-up selections or
multiple pages to screens are incredibly simple to accomplish.
Collaborating with end-users is no-longer a frustrating process with
Nucleus.. You can often prototype the guts of an application in a few
minutes to demonstrate the "look and feel" and then add the bells and
whistles as the user-population and the programming group firm up the design
concepts.
There is an easy transition path to GUI in Nucleus without a steep learning
curve - a couple of days of instruction and you can be well on your way to
being very comfortable developing within the environment.
An integrated environment exists within Nucleus that doesn't require any
knowledge of objects or properties and allows you to do your development and
maintenance in ways that are intuitive to a "pick programmer". If you want
or need to integrate ActiveX objects, java script or C#, those controls can
be easily integrated.
Nucleus supports GUI, green-screen, character based color as well as WEB
support using the same "rule-sets", greatly reducing support effort and
ensuring data consistency.
BTW, Nucleus supports most multi-dimensional environments and allows an
application created in say Universe or UniData (following simple rules), to
be ported without effort to another environment such as jBASE, D3,
UniVision, etc with only a re-compile.
There is a migration outline available on our website:
http://www.binarystar.com/MigrationFromLegacyToNucleus.html
If you (or anyone else) would like to see how it works,
click here: http://www.binarystar.com/contact.html (or call at the numbers
below)
and I'll be happy to schedule an on-line demo for you and provide a free
evaluation copy.
Lee Bacall
http://www.binarystar.com
Phone: +1 (954) 791-8575
Toll free (866) 882-1888
Cell: +1 (954) 937-8989
--
u2-users mailing list
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.oliver.com/mailman/listinfo/u2-users
