Re: [Oracle Forms replacement] Ways to start this project

[Jaroslaw Staniek]

On 1 March 2012 14:20, Mihail Daskalov <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> Probably <quote>‘Oracle Forms has the ability to use another database because 
> of its transaction and database triggers replacement.’
>
> </quote> refers to the old “Oracle Open Client Adapter for ODBC”. You can see 
> this topic https://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=495283
>
> Unfortunately it is no longer developed or supported (AFAIK).
>
> Oracle Forms (actually Procedure builder component) included a Client 
> implementation of the PLSQL language (yes PLSQL is not only Oracle Server 
> language).
>
> The lack of FREE client runtime is major problem with Oracle Forms and Oracle 
> ADF. Once Oracle Forms Runtime Client/Server was free (no cost) for use. Then 
> it was desupported and only Forms Server (iAS Enterprise Edition) was left. 
> Then BC4J and JDeveloper emerged as some alternative, which was later named 
> ADF Swing. It was still client server, but WAS NOT FREE. Now it is also being 
> desupported (in JDeveloper 11.1.1.5 and 11.1.2), with only ADF JSF left, 
> which is not client server.
>
> The only commercial alternatives I know for Client/Server programs are Java 
> with Swing and JDBC (possibly there are some frameworks that help a little), 
> and Microsoft .NET with Windows Forms components, or eventually LINQ , Entity 
> Framework and Silvelight (but at the MS sight things are quite fragile in my 
> opinion also).
>
> It would be good to have something on which to start building upon a Free 
> toolkit for Client Server programs.
>

Hi,
Thanks for outlining the taste of Oracle's business. Here's my take.

I believe the Free World has no visible interest in a free ~1-to-1
replacement for such tools (tools that once became popular because of
their freeware aspect). That is because developing replacements of
something that changes itself is always a short-term goal and
potential success is not very rewarding. The Free World seeks for
stability - products that can be utilized for years, software
developed on current and near-future requirements.

The trouble for me is that out of all consultants that would be
natural partners for such a free initiative some wouldn't dream of
stability/predictability of software components since their success
lies in their knowledge of tools that are affected by changes. Some
others are in gray area but they rarely seem to be early adopters what
makes it hard to gain momentum (users are welcome contributors in
FOSS).

Conversely, most of the free software enthusiasts are not interested
in this kind of tools. So unless someone does really solid 'market
research', I am afraid we're left without any large group of interest
but with fair amount of wishful thinking. This is why I would suggest
taking less ambitious challenges so goals can be achieved before
situation (especially technology) changes again in a painful way.

--
regards / pozdrawiam, Jaroslaw Staniek
 http://www.linkedin.com/in/jstaniek
 Kexi & Calligra (kexi-project.org, identi.ca/kexi, calligra-suite.org)
 KDE Software Development Platform on MS Windows (windows.kde.org)