Toward a Client/Server Model
When this book was first published in 1994, Informix's "state of the art" client/server applications were Informix-WingZ and Informix-Viewpoint. Four years later, in 1998, WingZ has been sold to another company and Viewpoint doesn't exist. An entire application development system, NewEra, has been released, upgraded twice, and is losing ground to more modern tools. Informix purchased an online analytical processing systems company and incorporated its product into its MetaCube option, which provides extended summarization and drill-down into Informix-based data warehouses.
In the same four years, the Informix database engine has seen a short-lived Version 6 followed by a continually improving Version 7, now known as Informix Dynamic Server, or IDS. Informix purchased an object-oriented database company, Illustra, and incorporated its object-oriented database into what was originally called Informix Universal Server, and is now called Informix Dynamic Server with Universal Data Option. Informix extended Version 7 into an extended parallel processing system that operates within clusters of UNIX machines. This product has variously been called Extended Parallel Server (XPS), Version 8, and the current Informix Dynamic Server with Parallel Option.
Informix Dynamic Server has been ported to the Microsoft Windows NT environment, and the engine looks almost identical to its older UNIX siblings. Some differences exist at the installation level due to differences between NT's and UNIX's filesystems, but at the database and application levels, the ports look identical. The installation is actually much cleaner and less error prone in the NT port.
The database administration and query tools are also totally revamped for the NT port. The dbaccess program still exists for those who are insistent on using a character-based interface, but Informix has added a graphical query program called SQLEditor The tbmonitor/onmonitor program is completely replaced by a graphical interface very similar to that used on Microsoft SQL Server.
Being the diehard UNIX bigots that most of us DBAs are, Windows NT has still not achieved the respect of a "real operating system," but even the UNIX lovers are beginning to salivate at these graphical tools. From what used to be a total UNIX environment, many are going toward using NT as client platforms and leaving the real work to Informix Dynamic Server on UNIX machines.
Look for this to change, and to change more and more in favor of Windows NT. I know, such sacrilege is grounds for my ejection from the UNIX priesthood. The fact is that four-processor NT systems are becoming available with faster processors than many UNIX machines, and Informix Dynamic Server on such machines can actually be made to perform extremely well. The Parallel Option is now available for clustered NT systems.
The point is that the NT systems are closing in on the UNIX systems in performance and usually have a significant advantage in cost of ownership. Don't discount either their performance or their impact in the market. For those UNIX bigots who still refuse to see the light, at least admit that NT has given us a lot of really neat client tools.