Y2K-PC-SOFTWARE - X-BASE: 48 million applications?
This I have found on X-BASE; thanks to Charles P. Reuben. Any thoughts on the business implications?
One thing is clear: this is another replacement / remediation opportunity; it will turn IMHO into an industry on it's own the coming 2 years. Just waiting for the first announcements for X-Base scanning tools etc (may be there are some on the market; have not seen any though).
John
--------------------------
cinderella.co.za
from Charlie Reuben Dallas(Home of the Meyerson
Symphony Hall,the US' BEST)
RE: All XBASE Problems in the PC and the Cost to
fix.(25-50 Billion???)
Part I Intoduction to the PC X BASE Problem:
No one on these Year 2000 study groups is looking at
the real problem for the PCs. As they say every 4
years here, "Its the APPLICATIONS,dummies!!! Not the
programs. It was what was done to those programs that
have built up a mess that is a scaled down version of
the MAIN FRAME Business Application Problems.
And...its worse because there is some agreement on what
you can do to isolate and identify and fix the Big
Boys. There has been little said or done that even
indicates that ANYONE is even looking at the most wide
spread mess of all, the X BASE problem.
....
I do not think that the cost of
the X Base problem has been included in most of the
Year 2000 studies, yet the applications infest many
large companies and must be fixed. Given the nature of
Corporate Non Disclosure policies in most Companies,
such proprietary information is not "given out". I can
only think that if there are 8 million "seats" for
Lotus "NOTES" there must be 5 times as many customized
"things" sitting in the Big Companies.
...
PART II
Consider the X Base Problem. There are 8 million in
the dBASE installed base per Borland's numbers. dBASE's
Data base "engine". Lets triple that to arrive at a
modest amount of copies of data base software in the
field including "compiled applications and double that
again to reflect the multiple number of applications
per desk. <so that is 8 * 3 * 2 = 48 million apps; JM>
MOST if not all of the 'custom" software applications
use date field information in some manner just as COBOL
applications do. Since dBASE,Foxbase,
SuperBase,Paradox and Clipper amoung others were "easy
to work with" readily 'adaptable" and had the data base
at their core, these were often the center of
development for VARS and "business partners"
(B.P.s).aka: "Solution Providers".
....
Part III: A Case Example:
Consider:
Super Widgets, Inc. makes 1,500 line items of stock
widgets and customizes some 5,000 more for special
customers with 500 Manufacturer's reps sending in
orders by fax,phone and telex. Sometimes one of the
more advanced uses Email. The process begins.
Somewhere along the way, Sam Super decided to
"computerize" so at the Country Club bar he found out
from the bartender that I.M.A Schlocker specialized in
Small Computers for "important business men like
Mr.Super". I.M writes up a full scale integrated
package for all of Sam's departments and pretty much
does a bang up job using Zippy BASE. (I love Borland
so I don't want to say dBASE or the Foxy word). Many
of them look a bit like this:
-------------------------------------------------------
----
** foolish.prg ...prints a list of foolish things
business men have to do ona given date;
** written in Zippy Base by I.M.A.Schlocker 4/1/87;
** Property of I.Schlocker and Co.
Call for special programs at my day job at
7-11 (212-555-1212);
** Modified by E.B.Schlocker II 4/1/92 ;
"------------------------------------------------------
------------"
clea all;
set colo to y+/b;
set century off;
use foo inde foo,foo2,foo3;
do evnmofoo ;
@ 20,20 say "Printing a list of today's items for you";
repo form foolist.frm ;
clos all
end;(if evnmofoo was a routine)
end;
return
NOW...the part I want to stress is that for each and
every little one of these here guys, inVARiably there
IS a date field and inVARiably , the neighborhood VAR
set the Cent off (just in case) to make sure that some
two fingered typist didn't have the chance to muck
things up much.
Never did anyone exit a program and set Cent ON. So,
you have in every possible way shape and form,
applications written "to order" for some "entity" or
"market" each with its own peculiar way of doing
things, names of fields, methods and procedures which
internally depend upon those names and data types to
produce whatever was supposed to come out the other end
of the machine.
appplication TWO: mostly P Code:
order widget
issue ship orders
issue invoice
post A/R
monitor A/R
call for check when late
post A/R paid
post G/L
if we just look at: issue invoice:
ship stuff
shipping notice and or bill of lading
terms: 2% ten net 30 days 1.5 if over 60 days retro to 30.
(pretty standard)
integrated with A/R
Here we see the need for the use of 'memory variables
mem vars" If those Mem Vars depend on a 2 YY date field
and can not read the 4 YYYY field we need to rewrite
this application. And..we now open up an entire can of
worms,especially the more tightly knit the entire
"integrated package" was built. Since every name and
field may have some use in other programs and modules,
tweaking Super Widgets nose can make his feet hurt or
even drop off completely.
... |
