************************************* * * * DB/C Newsletter * * May 2005 * * * ************************************* News and Comments Beta testing of DB/C FS 4.0 is progressing. If all goes well, it will be released in June. This month's newsletter is a short attempt to answer the question that several folks have asked me through the years. That question is "what are the plans for DB/C"? don.wills@dbcsoftware.com ****************************************************************************** Future Plans for DB/C Software Company It is surprising that DATABUS is still alive. Very few programming languages make it to their 20th birthday, yet DATABUS has been around for more than 30 years! Some of the credit for this longevity goes to the good design decisions made by several individuals at Datapoint Corporation. Some of the credit goes to those companies that have continued to believe that DATABUS was a good tool, even while companies like Microsoft were using market control to drive companies to rewrite perfectly fine applications. And some of the credit goes to companies like DB/C Software Company for continuing to support and enhance the language. When DB/C Release 3.0 was commercially released in the early 80s, the expectation was that it was a useful transition product, and that it would have a five year life span. While that five year life span has turned into more than 20 years, we at DB/C Software Company never thought it would last more than five more years. We're still of that nature, although realistically, there will probably still be DB/C DX programs running in 25 years. We'll still be here supporting users while there are still users to be supported. DB/C FS was a great addition for users of the DB/C programming language. It has allowed many users to continue using their existing programs and database, while extending their systems with other tools. The addition of GUI and SQL features to DB/C DX has also added longevity to many DB/C DX applications. Unfortunately, an elegant addition to the DB/C language for building web apps is impossible without making drastic changes to the persistence model of DATABUS. So no big feature additions are planned for DB/C DX. Features that will be added in future releases of DB/C DX will mostly be in the areas of enhancements to GUI functionality and enhancements to the Eclipse DDT development environment. The jury is out on whether Microsoft's .NET will be a winner, or will just be cast off like so many other of Microsoft's failed initiatives (e.g. Microsoft's DNA initiative). If .NET is successful, DB/C DX and DB/C FS will embrace it. DB/C JX was an attempt to provide an automated and evolutionary transition away from the DB/C programming language. Its implementation and timing resulted in commercial failure, but the idea of building a transition tool away from the DB/C programming language is still valid. We are considering building a new product similar to DB/C JX, except that instead of creating object files, the DB/C source programs would be translated directly to Java and C# source files. If you are interested in such a product, contact us. So the short answer to the question is that DB/C Software Company will continue to enhance DB/C DX and DB/C FS, while recognizing that as time goes on, applications migrate to new paradigms and programming tools. We'll be here to assist our customers in whatever way we can. ****************************************************************************** DB/C DX Class Schedule Class: DB/C DX Fundamentals Date: September, 2005 Location: to be determined For information, send email to admin@dbcsoftware.com. ****************************************************************************** Subscribing to the DB/C Newsletter If you don't already have the DB/C Newsletter delivered to your email address and would like to have it emailed to you monthly, just send an email message to dbcnews-subscribe@dbcsoftware.com. The newsletter will be delivered to the email address from which the message was sent.