There's actually three pages of (somewhat unfounded) explanations as to why it can't be ported to MS SQL. Mostly bullshit about WACOM SQL being incompatible with Transact (which begs the question, why not just use Transact in the first place when MS' and Sybase' version are about 80% similar).
Depending on which Sybase database they're running, it might not be unfounded. There are a couple of Sybase database servers out there. One is Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), which is based off the same codebase as Microsoft SQL Server. Another is Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA, formerly SQL Anywhere, formerly Watcom SQL), which is a different codebase entirely. If the developers are talking about Watcom SQL, then I suspect they're running ASA, not ASE, in which case porting an application from ASA to SQL Server might be non-trivial (I've no idea, since I've never tried it).
There's also the fact that ASA is fairly cheap as far as database servers go, so there might not be much incentive to port these applications to MySQL.
I did, every month or so. While Shift wasn't as popular as Wired, I always thought it was a better magazine (less hype, more meat). Plus the fact that it was Canadian was an added bonus (at least to a Canuck like me).
That said, I'm not surprised they decided to call it quits. This has happened before (it disappeared from newsstands for a few months back in 2000, for example), and even lately it's been hard to find it at local bookstores.
Watcom got bought out by PowerSoft, who in turn got bought out by Sybase. Sybase then spun off what used to be Watcom as iAnywhere Solutions. There's a bit of corporate history available here.
As for what iAnywhere is currently developing, there's a list of products available here. iAnywhere focuses on databases these days; they no longer develop compilers.
Our latest release (8.0.0) was fairly stable when it went out the door in December. A number of comments we got from our customers indicated that they were rather surprised at how stable it was (especially for a.0.0 release). Hopefully we'll do the same for the next major release as well.
There's a feature which allows you to store java objects in the database, which looks cool although it has no affect on me.
You can also write stored procedures in Java as well, which is cool, too. I'm not sure how many people take advantage of this, though.
The replication system is very complex and is not really an option for application developers because of support issues. This also means that for the mobile market, while the database is capable of runing on Palm Pilots and WinCE boxes, it's not in my opinion a very good choice for application developers.
Out of curiosity, what version are you basing these comments on? I've looked at replication in 8.0.x, and it looks *reasonably* straightforward to set up.
Things I have mixed feelings about: having a relationship with Sybase. I like the SQL Anywhere people, but Sybase as a whole I neither like nor trust.
Well, we're (almost) a separate company now (hence the iAnywhere Solutions), so you don't really have to deal with Sybase;)
Finally, of course, SQL Anywhere is closed source, although Sybase has been reasonable with its licensing and pricing, and the product works reasonably well so it's not a huge issue if you have no political problem with proprietary software.
Don't forget support, either! Apparently our customers think highly of our support team here in Waterloo.
If you're looking for a nice RDBMS for Netware, iAnywhere Solutions has
SQL Anywhere, which is available for a number of platforms including Netware.
I'm not exactly sure how it stacks up against PostgreSQL, but I've had a lot of success using it in the past (on Linux and Windows, admittedly).
Not that I work for iAnywhere Solutions or anything. *cough*
Anyway there is only one way to get quality tech education in high school/middle school. You have to hire a professional. I wont go into detail about how completely awesome that would be. If my high school had a full time employee who knew more about computers than anyone else there it would have been great. I wouldn't have to deal with stupid teachers thinking I'm "hackign the schools network" when I'm installing Macromedia flash player.
I'm sure most schools would love to hire someone who had at least half a clue when it came to computers, but the problem is such people don't come cheap. Here in Ontario teachers start at about $30,000/year (technicians are less, iirc) while most starting salaries in the private sector are around $40-45,000/year, plus your employer doesn't actively hate you.
For those who watched. Did anyone else want to reach inside their TV and smack Halle Berry, not just for completely losing it, but for thanking her lawyer.
Actually, I wanted to smack her for thanking her agent at least five times. Watching her lose it was just embarrassing.
How about getting a good quality lap top from Dell or another brand name with the new Nvidia or ATI mobile graphics chips and a good compatible sound card?
If you're interested in playing 3D games, laptops still might not be the way to go. I've got an ATI 3D accelerator in my laptop (Compaq Presario 17XL362), and the 3D performance is pretty poor (especially with some of the newer titles). I'm not sure how the nVidia GeForce2Go stacks up (I'd hope it's better), but it's certainly something where you want to try before you buy.
All that said, my laptop is great for 2D games(AoE, Fallout Tactics, etc), and it is a whole lot easier to haul around than my gaming machine.
Corel's original OfficeSuite 8 was developped in Java....
No, you're mistaken. Corel was, at one point, developing an office suite in Java, but it was cancelled back in the summer of 1997. Every version of WordPerfect (well, that Corel has released) has been written in C and C++.
Cheap Option: An Nvidia MX Card. Speedy, but cheap. Then I could play UT at a reasonable speed.
While I generally think nVidia cards are great, if you're looking for something primarily for Unreal Tournament then try a Voodoo card of some sort. I've both a TNT2 and a Voodoo2, and UT is a lot happier with the Voodoo2. Why? Apparently the Unreal Engine was targeted at Glide and then ported over to D3D and OpenGL as an afterthough (which leads to slow performance under the two APIs).
So RH didn't sell that many copies. Oh, waaaah! As if it costs them anything. (If they've got the machines to do the builds now, then they'll have the machines to do the builds tomorrow. Builds can be scripted, so time = money is irrelevent.)
Sure, builds can be scripted, but that only works when the build actually works. Whenever something breaks someone's got to sit down and figure out what went wrong. Sure, it might only take a half-hour every build break, but over time it does add up. Nevermind the resources that are spent on QA making sure that, at the very least, you can install the damned thing and it'll boot. Plus, if they sell the distribution (with support, of course), then they have to have the support people on hand to deal with Sparc-specific issues. It's not just a case of having a Sparc in the corner churning out builds.
As for the hardware, who says they'll have the machines next week? They could sell them or donate them to some other organization that will find them more useful.
I'd enter into my Matrix-esque quote, 'That sounds like a good deal, but I have a better one. I give you the finger, and you give me my phone call.'
Wouldn't a better one be: "Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal. But I think I may have a better one. How about, I give you the finger and you fix my hardware?"
Slashdot Mirror
There's actually three pages of (somewhat unfounded) explanations as to why it can't be ported to MS SQL. Mostly bullshit about WACOM SQL being incompatible with Transact (which begs the question, why not just use Transact in the first place when MS' and Sybase' version are about 80% similar).
Depending on which Sybase database they're running, it might not be unfounded. There are a couple of Sybase database servers out there. One is Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), which is based off the same codebase as Microsoft SQL Server. Another is Adaptive Server Anywhere (ASA, formerly SQL Anywhere, formerly Watcom SQL), which is a different codebase entirely. If the developers are talking about Watcom SQL, then I suspect they're running ASA, not ASE, in which case porting an application from ASA to SQL Server might be non-trivial (I've no idea, since I've never tried it).
There's also the fact that ASA is fairly cheap as far as database servers go, so there might not be much incentive to port these applications to MySQL.
(Disclosure: I'm a code monkey for Sybase.)
Do you know anyone who _ever_ paid money for it ?
I did, every month or so. While Shift wasn't as popular as Wired, I always thought it was a better magazine (less hype, more meat). Plus the fact that it was Canadian was an added bonus (at least to a Canuck like me).
That said, I'm not surprised they decided to call it quits. This has happened before (it disappeared from newsstands for a few months back in 2000, for example), and even lately it's been hard to find it at local bookstores.
Just wondering what they(watcom) are up to now.
Watcom got bought out by PowerSoft, who in turn got bought out by Sybase. Sybase then spun off what used to be Watcom as iAnywhere Solutions. There's a bit of corporate history available here.
As for what iAnywhere is currently developing, there's a list of products available here. iAnywhere focuses on databases these days; they no longer develop compilers.
A couple of random comments:
It's quite stable (but stay away from .0.0 release).
Our latest release (8.0.0) was fairly stable when it went out the door in December. A number of comments we got from our customers indicated that they were rather surprised at how stable it was (especially for a .0.0 release). Hopefully we'll do the same for the next major release as well.
There's a feature which allows you to store java objects in the database, which looks cool although it has no affect on me.
You can also write stored procedures in Java as well, which is cool, too. I'm not sure how many people take advantage of this, though.
The replication system is very complex and is not really an option for application developers because of support issues. This also means that for the mobile market, while the database is capable of runing on Palm Pilots and WinCE boxes, it's not in my opinion a very good choice for application developers.
Out of curiosity, what version are you basing these comments on? I've looked at replication in 8.0.x, and it looks *reasonably* straightforward to set up.
Things I have mixed feelings about: having a relationship with Sybase. I like the SQL Anywhere people, but Sybase as a whole I neither like nor trust.
Well, we're (almost) a separate company now (hence the iAnywhere Solutions), so you don't really have to deal with Sybase ;)
Finally, of course, SQL Anywhere is closed source, although Sybase has been reasonable with its licensing and pricing, and the product works reasonably well so it's not a huge issue if you have no political problem with proprietary software.
Don't forget support, either! Apparently our customers think highly of our support team here in Waterloo.
If you're looking for a nice RDBMS for Netware, iAnywhere Solutions has SQL Anywhere, which is available for a number of platforms including Netware. I'm not exactly sure how it stacks up against PostgreSQL, but I've had a lot of success using it in the past (on Linux and Windows, admittedly).
Not that I work for iAnywhere Solutions or anything. *cough*
-j
Anyway there is only one way to get quality tech education in high school/middle school. You have to hire a professional. I wont go into detail about how completely awesome that would be. If my high school had a full time employee who knew more about computers than anyone else there it would have been great. I wouldn't have to deal with stupid teachers thinking I'm "hackign the schools network" when I'm installing Macromedia flash player.
I'm sure most schools would love to hire someone who had at least half a clue when it came to computers, but the problem is such people don't come cheap. Here in Ontario teachers start at about $30,000/year (technicians are less, iirc) while most starting salaries in the private sector are around $40-45,000/year, plus your employer doesn't actively hate you.
For those who watched. Did anyone else want to reach inside their TV and smack Halle Berry, not just for completely losing it, but for thanking her lawyer.
Actually, I wanted to smack her for thanking her agent at least five times. Watching her lose it was just embarrassing.
-j
seems like Panasonic has placed its bet...and PalmOS and WinCE were nowhere to be found....
Er? From the article:
-j
How about getting a good quality lap top from Dell or another brand name with the new Nvidia or ATI mobile graphics chips and a good compatible sound card?
If you're interested in playing 3D games, laptops still might not be the way to go. I've got an ATI 3D accelerator in my laptop (Compaq Presario 17XL362), and the 3D performance is pretty poor (especially with some of the newer titles). I'm not sure how the nVidia GeForce2Go stacks up (I'd hope it's better), but it's certainly something where you want to try before you buy.
All that said, my laptop is great for 2D games(AoE, Fallout Tactics, etc), and it is a whole lot easier to haul around than my gaming machine.
-j
Put up a webpage with code I can copy-paste-and-run, email me, and I'll update this story with your link.
/.
Thanks, but no thanks. I may as well just unplug my webserver -- the end result is roughly the same as posting a link to it on the front page of
-j
Corel's original OfficeSuite 8 was developped in Java....
No, you're mistaken. Corel was, at one point, developing an office suite in Java, but it was cancelled back in the summer of 1997. Every version of WordPerfect (well, that Corel has released) has been written in C and C++.
-j
Cheap Option: An Nvidia MX Card. Speedy, but cheap. Then I could play UT at a reasonable speed.
While I generally think nVidia cards are great, if you're looking for something primarily for Unreal Tournament then try a Voodoo card of some sort. I've both a TNT2 and a Voodoo2, and UT is a lot happier with the Voodoo2. Why? Apparently the Unreal Engine was targeted at Glide and then ported over to D3D and OpenGL as an afterthough (which leads to slow performance under the two APIs).
-j
So RH didn't sell that many copies. Oh, waaaah! As if it costs them anything. (If they've got the machines to do the builds now, then they'll have the machines to do the builds tomorrow. Builds can be scripted, so time = money is irrelevent.)
Sure, builds can be scripted, but that only works when the build actually works. Whenever something breaks someone's got to sit down and figure out what went wrong. Sure, it might only take a half-hour every build break, but over time it does add up. Nevermind the resources that are spent on QA making sure that, at the very least, you can install the damned thing and it'll boot. Plus, if they sell the distribution (with support, of course), then they have to have the support people on hand to deal with Sparc-specific issues. It's not just a case of having a Sparc in the corner churning out builds.
As for the hardware, who says they'll have the machines next week? They could sell them or donate them to some other organization that will find them more useful.
-j
I'd enter into my Matrix-esque quote, 'That sounds like a good deal, but I have a better one. I give you the finger, and you give me my phone call.'
Wouldn't a better one be: "Yeah. Well, that sounds like a pretty good deal. But I think I may have a better one. How about, I give you the finger and you fix my hardware?"
DSL = Damn Slow Line.
Does that make ADSL = Awfully Damn Slow Line?
-j
Meanwhile folks smart enough to invest in real infrastructure software for B2B or eCommerce made a killing.
What does B2B stand for?
I'm fed up with this 'one OS to rule the world' crap.
One OS to rule them all,
One OS to find them,
One OS to bring them all,
and in the darkness bind them.
:)