Microsoft Corp has caused some backing up in the industry as vendors wait a Windows95 peg on which to hang their hats. Informix Software Inc has taken to re-numbering its NewEra application development system. Last summer’s first release, 1.0 for Windows, has been followed by 1.0 Motif implementations for Hewlett-Packard Co, IBM Corp and Sun Microsystems Inc systems over the last three months. Version 2.0, with the repository browser and application partitioning modules was due in the second quarter, a release expected back then to be in line with Microsoft’s Windows95 introduction timescale. Informix still wants to tap Windows95 with a fully-certified release called 2.0, followed by an implementation for Windows NT, and is, therefore giving anything in between a 1.X release code. That means a version 1.2 is now the anticipated repository and partitioning-enabled vehicle. Although partitioning will apparently be a working technology next quarter, Informix is likely to wait until its user conference in July to announce shipment details, although that is not yet set in stone, it says. Meantime a minor 1.1 release with added Windows facilities is due this month. The first NewEra release tailored for building applications that can be transparently processed across different nodes and between client and server systems, known as application partitioning, is being built with Informix’s own technologies. A second release will follow later in the autumn using Transarc Corp’s Distributed Computing Environment implementation and Encina transaction processing monitor, enabling users to build applications for processing across distributed environments, Informix says. Corba Object Request Broker-enabled implementations will follow if vendors get their Object Request Brokers talking to each other and when customers start asking for it, Informix says. There is no word on the repository yet. Meantime Informix is continuing its Distributed Computing Environment-based NewEra work with Open Horizon Inc and other Distributed Computing Environment/Informix database integration. The C-based NewEra does not generate native stored procedures like other second generation development environments because they are bad news, being difficult to de-bug and also database-proprietary, Informix explained. NewEra encapsulates existing X and C++ libraries. Looking at other tools, Open Database Connectivity access to multiple databases via the Informix Enterprise Gateway from Informix’s ViewPoint query system and report writer is expected by the end of next quarter. Promised support for Tivoli Systems Inc’s systems management environment will be delivered around the middle of the year when the Tivoli Management Environment will be used to manage clustered and massively parallel processing systems running the Dynamic Scalable Architecture database software, Informix says. The Informix SE small-scale database engine is now up and running on Windows NT 3.5. Informix OnLine ships for the Microsoft operating s ystem later this quarter.
