IBM and c-isam

[st...@pandora.be]

Hello,

Now that IBM is going to purchase Informix, what's going to happen
with C-ISAM ?

IBM employees over here seem to discuss datablades and object
relational technology, but what about a simple C program
that links the C-ISAM library for indexed file access ?

Also, what's going to happen with Informix SE ?

If you need just a simple database with as little administration
as possible, SE is very nice ...

Or is PostgresSQL and MySQL the way to go ?

Despite the fact that those databases still lack things that SE
offers ...

David.

[Unknown]

Hi,
I'm currently pinning my hopes on the fact that IBM won't want
to rock the boat too much. I'm in the process of trying to sell a new
solution into some customers based on the existing C-ISAM files, but
with everything ported to Linux.

I've never ported anything from C-ISAM to SQL before. Is it a
large project ?. I want to go this route eventually but I'm not sure
about SQL's performance compared to C-ISAM as my customers
applications are very disk/data intensive.

PostgresSQL and mySQL don't appear to be stable enough yet for
real-world applications (perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong),
or indeed for business critical systems, such as the ones I'm
currently working on.

IBM, if you're reading this, please leave C-ISAM alone (at
least for a couple of years).

Anyone know roughly how many people are running C-ISAM ?

Neil E.
Remove [removetoreply] from email address to mail me direct

[David Stes]

Neil Everton wrote:
>
> PostgresSQL and mySQL don't appear to be stable enough yet for
> real-world applications (perhaps someone can correct me if I'm wrong),
> or indeed for business critical systems, such as the ones I'm
> currently working on.

Mysql doesn't have views last time I checked out, which is rather
important to me, a create view should work. Postgres is OK but doesn't
do outer joins, except for the very latest version perhaps. Informix SE
is fine, it has stored procedures, triggers, views, auditing etc. And
it is really really simple ... and solid. And it works fine with 4GL
and the form builder and report generator ... the Form builder is
something I miss with Mysql and Postgres.

SE also doesn't require administration; you can f&*#k up the database,
and still recover from all sorts of corruption, I love it when you
restore .dat/.idx files behind SE's back and SE runs and runs just fine
...

SE is like the Energizer bunny.

The problem is that it doesn't sound very re-assuring to me if they say
"for the moment we don't plan to cancel SE".

I use Oracle and IDS for the moment, but I do think it's a shame SE
isn't more visible ...

Actually there should be an open-source clone of C-ISAM and SE, but
AFAIK it does not exist.

Maybe in your case, you could try Sleepy Cat's Berkeley DB
(http://www.sleepycat.com) as an alternative, rewrite the app to use
dbm.

[Andrej Falout]

[This followup was posted to comp.databases.informix and a copy was sent
to the cited author.]

In article <3AEECA90...@pandroa.be>, st...@pandroa.be says...

>
> Actually there should be an open-source clone of C-ISAM and SE, but
> AFAIK it does not exist.

It does exist, but it's not OpenSource. But source code is available for
a fee:

http://www.infoflex.com

HTH,

Yours, Andrej Falout, http://www.falout.com
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