U2 or D3 Frameworks

[Doug Averch]

With all of the conversations about frameworks, I figured that I put my 2 cents worth in.  We did not call them frameworks back in the 80's or 90's, I'm not sure we even had a name for them.  However, we sure had to work with them and against them as well.

I remember the first I worked with was called SCRMF which was short for screen master file.  I first used SCRMF on McDonald Douglas, R83 and Prime Information.  SCRMF was a file that contained all information that was presented on the screen in a specific format and had as series of subroutines you could call to handle all screen related functions.  I still have a client or two that is using a variation of SCRMF.  No wonder dinosaurs are running around in the pick world and will be soon extinct.

Our U2logic team has been working on package that is called PROMAN for over 18 years.  It has a screen framework that uses files PSH (Prompt Screen Header) and PSD (Prompt Screen Detail).   The translations of the three character names are suppositions on my part.   U2logic is porting those screens to a JavaScript framework called dhtmlX which runs on Apache Tomcat web servers in our case.  DhtmlX is used by hundreds of thousands of companies and for sure one company that uses the database called Universe and Unidata.

U2logic has been using dhtmlX's framework for about 8 or 9 years now.  Part of the framework is open source and part must be purchased.  But before we used this framework we thought we could write and maintain our own.  That would be a very expensive laugh today when browsers change every 6 to 8 weeks now. 

In our U2 and D3 world we think we can write our own frameworks.  This is not just extending an open source frameworks, this code written in UniBasic, or C#, or Java, or what ever language you pick.  These U2 and D3 specific frameworks that they think you can be successful when they have 10 clients or maybe 100 clients or maybe 400 clients.  Most of these JavaScript frameworks start at 1000 clients or they disappear quite quickly.  We need to get a grip and look at the outside world before an archaeologist finds us.

Regards,

Doug

www.u2logic.com

Blog: "https://u2logic.blogspot.com"

[Ian McGowan]

In the 80's we called them "4GL's".  And I still marvel at how productive you could be with a good one.  I used a great system called "Creator" that did several amazing things (for example the core system was built around what today would be called message queues).  SystemBuilder is a good example of a surviving 4GL that seems to be hanging on.

Since most business users just want CRUD screens and reports, it's interesting to think about what would happen if Rocket released SB as a free platform, with a drastically cut down install process (preferably serverless), targeting small departmental webapps.  It would be similar to Oracle Apex - free for small (<1GB databases), a smooth upgrade path to astronomical costs if you have a lot of users or a big database.