Re: Oracle 9iAS: Forms compatibility between NT and Unix

"Jeff Traigle" <traigle_at_si.umich.edu> wrote in message news:B90AF3BA.13F39%traigle_at_si.umich.edu...
>
> We are finally being allowed to upgrade our maintenance application at
work.
>
> It's currently running on HP-UX 10.20 and Oracle 7.3.4.5.0.0. The most
used
> screen is the work order entry screen and is an Xwindows/Motif Forms 4.5
> screen. (It runs on our PCs via Hummingbird Exceed, but we really need to
> get away from this for license cost reasons.) The main application that
our
> maintenance folks use is in Forms 4.5 on Windows. We never moved to the
> Windows client for the work order screens because it wasn't written to
> automatically print to a UNIX printer on the server side as the Motif one
> was. (Due to the nature of our environment this is critical and can't be
> based on Windows printing that requires proper logon the PC.)
>
> The new version is a web-based product done with Oracle 9iAS. We're
getting
> some verbal cooperation from the company regarding the printing issue,
which
> still relies on Windows printing. However, they are only releasing the AS
> side on WindowsNT/2000. Since this requires several thousands of dollars
in
> new hardware and licenses, as well as being M$ related, I was not happy
> about this news today. According to the techie guy at the company, the
forms
> must be recompiled for the different platforms as they were with the old
> Forms 4.5 stuff. All fine and good.
>
> My question...
>
> Are there significant compatibility problems that would seriously prevent
a
> software vendor from doing this recompile in short order and being able to
> support the product on both Windows and UNIX servers? (They have UNIX
> expertise in house so that's not an issue for them... the release of
Windows
> only was strictly marketshare related according to him.) I thought the
whole
> point of having Oracle Forms and Reports in the first place was to
eliminate
> massive headaches doing cross-platform development. (Then again, I'm not a
> developer, so what do I know? :)
>
> Can someone clue me in, please?
>
> --
> Jeff Traigle
> traigle_at_si.umich.edu
> http://www-personal.si.umich.edu/~traigle/
>

Depends on when and how often they use platform dependent constructs like writing a file or calling the O/S

Hth

--
Sybrand Bakker
Senior Oracle DBA

to reply remove '-verwijderdit' from my e-mail address