Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ontenv!soley From: soley@ontenv.UUCP (Norman S. Soley) Newsgroups: comp.databases Subject: Re: Informix problem with escape sequences Message-ID: <806@ontenv.UUCP> Date: 24 Sep 88 18:00:52 GMT References: <483@pan.UUCP> <860@vsi.UUCP> Organization: Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Toronto Lines: 55 In article <860@vsi.UUCP>, sullivan@vsi.UUCP (Michael T Sullivan) writes: > In article <483@pan.UUCP>, jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson) writes: > > > > The Informix products seem to be incapable of handling escape sequences, > > such as are generated by the arrow keys on ansi terminals, reliably. > > And how. If you hit arrow keys too fast, sperform will goof up and > interpret and escape sequence as separate characters, thus writing a > possibly incomplete record. There is an easy workaround, though. > Are you familiar with how h,j,k,l are used in vi? h=left, j=down, > k=up, l=right. In perform the control counterparts (^h,^j,^k,^l) do > the same thing. Use these control characters, NEVER use arrow keys > in sperform. I'm sorry but on this one I'll probably end up agreeing with jw, this is not a solution, our users are managers and biologists and they just won't be made to understand that they should push ^j instead of down arrow, "the arrow keys are there, why can't I use them?". I had to threatean my boss (an Urban Planner by training) that I would break his fingers if he didn't keep them off the arrow keys in input mode in vi. I can somewhat sympathize with jw's perdicament with Informix's support in Europe because we wen't through a similar situation here in Canada, we bought our first copy of Informix from RDS in California and had all kind of support problems until they finally got their Canadian operation up and running (about 1 1/2 years after they first told us they were doing it next month). But is was never as bad as the problems we had when we bought it from a local VAR. However I can't agree with jw's attitude and tone, it's obvious from things he/she has said that he/she has been forced to work with Informix against his/her will and is taking it out on the product as a result. There's an old saw that goes "it's a poor workman who blames his tools". I've had very good success building applications in 4GL. It has it's warts but so does any program, and in my veiw "known bug, fixed in the next release" is the best that ANY commecial vendor has offered. The net will not solve your problems for you Jamie, the fact that Alan has stopped reponding to you is proof of this. Why not try what I did? Carefully document the bugs you have found, and make DAMN SURE they are bugs! Then make notes on every time you try to contact Informix, flag out the problems like moving offices and the American offices refusal to deal with European customers, as much as possible include exact dates and times and names of who you talked to. Then send the whole thing to the CEO of Informix Software Inc. preferably from someone in authority in your company (president or vice-president). It worked for me. -- Norman Soley - Data Communications Analyst - Ontario Ministry of the Environment UUCP: uunet!attcan!lsuc!ncrcan!ontenv!soley VOICE: +1 416 323 2623 OR: soley@ontenv.UUCP