Need unbiased opinions about development tools for a DB application

[jcmercure]

Hello -

I am a developer with a lot of Oracle backend experience and a variety of front experience with tools such as Oracle Forms, Powerbuilder, Access and VB.

I may be part of a brand new development project that will be using SQL Server as the backend, but there is a chance Oracle may be used. Regardless of the backend choice, the front end development tool is really up in the air.

I have been asked to do some research regarding the front end tool to use. My initial reaction is let's use Powerbuilder, but that is not one of the 'front runners' right now. At the moment, Visual C++ and Visual FoxPro are the choices being looked at the hardest.

At the moment, I don't know much about the application purpose, so I can't provide details about it.

What I need is some opinions concerning front end tool, keeping in mind that the backend may be SQL Server or Oracle.

Any comments and comparison based on first hand experience using the following tools would be appreciated (version information would help as well):

Visual C++
Visual FoxPro
Access 2000 or up
Powerbuilder
VB
Delphi
.NET
Java

Thanks in advance.

- John Mercure

 

[jrbarnett]

John

In this situation I would recommend going with what you and the other developers feel most comfortable with, so that the design and development can be done more quickly, and expertise to check up and test each others work.

However, assuming that the skillset relatively even across the team of developers that will be working on the project, as you have a wide range of skills I would just say that remember that Access and Powerbuilder are designed from scratch for database applications, but others are general purpose which have the capability of interfacing to a database, so with them you would need to write database interface code as well as your application.
Obviously if the backend has not been decided between SQL Server and Oracle, using Powerbuilder and ensuring all database access code is in datawindows rather than embedded SQL will help ease the migration should the backend change early on in the project, but this really is the only other comment I have.

John

 

[gunjan14]

Hi,

I have been involved in development and I found VB quite handy. If u want some real quick front end development then probably u can look into VB also.

 

[Dimandja]

If your team's skillset is varied and the front end is a toss-up, I suggest looking into a versatile (varied) developement tool: Visual Studio.NET.

You will have your VB, C++, and whatnot handy. You should also consider that you may have to use various (not only one) tools for the front end. Today's front end needs are very sophisticated: don't bet on being happy with just one tool.

Dimandja

 

[1oldfoxman]

Just for clarification on jrbarnett's comment regarding Access and Powerbuilder being the only development tools in your list that are designed from scratch for database apps - he left out Visual FoxPro, which also certainly fits that description throroughly.

This is a tough decision and unbiased opinions hard to come by. I personally am familiar to different degrees with some of the tools listed. FoxPro is one of my favorite tools and would be a clear choice over Access/C++/Visual Basic. But it does have a signficant rampup effort if team is not already somewhat familiar with the FoxPro concepts. It has clear and simple abilities to pull from either back end.

I would tend to agree with Dimanja's comments on Visual Studio.NET - that gives you a mess of tools - including VFP (I think).
Good luck in your quest.

Dennis

 

[jrbarnett]

Dennis

Of course, silly me. I could also add 4D, but it isn't in jmercure's original list of possibilities.

jmercure
Basically I think that you and your team have to produce a list of pros and cons for each development tool and backend when used with their application specification and decide which is best for their needs, taking into account the various factors such as available expertise, target platform (eg Win32, web, Mac, .Net etc) and weigh up these to produce a list of the best tools and database for their needs.

John

 

[jcmercure]

Hello all -

Thank you all for your responses so far.

We are in the process of making comparisons between tools to determine our best bet. The problem is, we will be doing development for another firm which has already established Visual FoxPro as their main development tool. They are attempting to push us in that direction, but we are concerned about possible weaknesses in the tool.

We have previous experience with PowerBuilder and VB development. We do have our own concerns about using VB as the tool, so we want to see if a better choice exists.

I personally love PowerBuilder and have done some extensive work with Access and a bit with VB. As I stated in my original posting, PowerBuilder is my choice but I am not in the driver seat here (just doing some research). I am also concerned that I may be biased torward that choice.

What I really need is some good pro's and con's about the various tools. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? I realize that some of this may depend on personal preferences or even the level of a developers competence.

Does anyone know of a good website that may offer this type of tool comparison?

 

[Dimandja]

John,

There are many web sites that discuss pros and cons about those tools. A search engine will list them, though probably not in the context you want them.

You mention that your client likes Fox pro; well I have news for you: the client is always right.

Now, back to business, there really is no better or worse tool out there; that's why there are so many of them. You must pick the tool that will take care of the job at hand. Trying to come up with tools that agree with the crystal ball will only produce vapor-ware: good but unusable.

Dimandja

 

[svanels]

With all the respect to the opinion of the others, I recommend Delphi.
Delphi is a general purpose language that has a very strong database interface for desktops systems (access, paradox etc) and RDBS as sql-server, oracle, interbase, mysql informix etc.

More specific information at

http://www.borland.com/delphi/

or

http://delphi.about.com/cs/database/

Steven van Els
SAvanEls@cq-link.sr

 

[tshot]

i would alos like ur opinion. i am a LAMP programmer so my front end choice naturally is web browser.

but in case of intranet applications with mainly windows clients should i stick to it or change to any of the above suugested.

developing a skill set is not a problem

so i wish to know is the web browser based front end a good choice for Apache, MySql based soultions.

incidentally apche, MySql is freely available in Windows enviroment in an excellent packeage called wamp from apachefrineds

http://www.apachefriends.org/lampp.html

for linux
and

http://www.apachefriends.org/wampp.html

for windows




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