Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!cernvax!pan!jw
From: jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Informix 4gl
Message-ID: <482@pan.UUCP>
Date: 21 Sep 88 16:24:31 GMT
References: <473@pan.UUCP> <597@white.gcm>
Reply-To: jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson)
Organization: Adasoft AG, Solothurn, Switzerland
Lines: 49

In article <597@white.gcm> dc@white.UUCP (Dave Caswell) writes:
>In article <473@pan.UUCP> jw@pan.UUCP (Jamie Watson) writes:
>
>[More rambling complaints].
>
>To the people at Informix:
>There is no need to respond this rubbish.  My opinion of your product
>won't change just because there is one spoiled child out there somewhere.
>Just ignore him.  He isn't half as interested in filing bug reports as he
>is in his own ego.

Well, you may be right.  But if anyone can prove that any of the recent
bugs I have posted to the net are not in fact bugs, I will be surprised
(and very pleased - I *have* to try to write an application with this
thing).  As for filing bug reports, I would be happy to, if there were
only someplace to do so (other than the net).  Informix's operation in
Europe can be described as shaky, at best.  They claim to have an office
in Munich, but every time we try to call them, they either just moved
the office, or they are just about to move the office, or everyone in
the office is gone to a conference somewhere.  They claim publicly that
their U.S. office is willing to accept calls from Europe, but every time
I try to call them I am told in no uncertain terms that they don't want
phone calls from Europe.  Some time ago they claimed, both here and in
private email to me, that they were in the process of setting up an
email address for bug reports; I have heard nothing since.

The way I see it, I don't have a lot of options left.  The best I can
do now is to post the problems I find, in hopes that either someone
will know of a solution, or at least I will save someone else from
losing the amount of time that I have in discovering all this.  So
far, I have not seen a single solution to even one of the problems I
have posted (excuses, coverups, and "known bug, to be fixed real soon"
don't count).

One person wrote to me and asked if I would please post all my bug
complaints in a single article, to save others the time and trouble
of skipping so many if they are not interested.  I'm sorry, but that
isn't possible, because I'm actually continuing to discover all this
junk on a daily basis.  That is the thing that has amazed me the most
about Informix 4gl, in fact.  With most software packages, there is a
certain 'discovery period', during which you figure out the limits,
quirks and bugs in the product.  This usually takes something like a
few days to a few weeks.  Thereafter you can get about the task that
you actually need to do.  I have been writing Informix 4gl programs
for well over 6 months now, and I am still discovering bugs, quirks,
errors and inconsistency in the documentation, and every other kind
of problem.  There seems to be no end to the problems.

jw