Re: Query Tools

[Dave Shaw <dshaw1@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: John Bussert <jbussert@stecnet.com>


>I am trying to determine what the trend (if there is one) is for AS/400
>shops using query tools.  Are you using Query on the 400, query manager on
>the 400, or a PC based query tool - like Crystal Reports or Cognos
Impromptu
>or NGS Query tool, or ACS SQL, MS Access, or...
>
>What I am looking for is the answers for the following:
>What are you using (duh!)?

ASC Sequel; Client Access file transfer to Excel or FoxPro; ODBC through MS
Query to Excel

>DO you like it and why?

Sequel's great, the PC things are okay.

>Are your users able to do their own and why or why not?

Depends on the user - most can handle file transfer with hand-holding on
where the data is, power users can handle MS Query and Sequel.

>Have you researched other tools (like the PC based ones)?

Not recently, last time was several years ago.

>If PC based have you found performance issues?

Not really.

>How do you restrict user performance impacts?

Memory pool tuning, humorous threats, occasional intervention.  Our
production machine is a 4-way S20 2177 mixed-mode MAPICS server, which is
roughly 4 times as much machine as we need, so we and our users can do some
really stupid things without anyone else noticing.

>Any other comment or thought you want to give me on the topic would be
>greatly appreciated.

Teaching users how to use a query tool is typically much easier, in my
experience, than documenting your database well enough for them to find what
they're looking for without hand-holding.

---
Dave Shaw, General Nutrition, Greenville, SC
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The opinions expressed may not be my employer's unless I'm sufficiently
persuasive...


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