RE: DBU and it's competitors

We actually use both FEU and Surveyor/400 - I hate to admit it because in
some ways these tools do almost the same thing.  From a historic
perspective we chose FEU over DBU (this goes back 15 years or so) because
our programmers felt that the products were very similar in functionality
but that FEU was more SEU like and they felt more comfortable about it - no
debate please - it was 15 years ago and the development staff here chose
the product.

I picked up Surveyor/400 about 5 years ago or so with the intent to GUI-ize
our tools and expand the programmers arsenal of tools.  Back then
Surveyor/400 offered a lot of nice things over FEU, DBU, etc.  At that time
it wasn't so much to GUI-ize the environment but work towards a PC desktop
type of application environment - code/400->WDSC, visual age, etc.  At the
time I think Surveyor/400 also had some more built in function than FEU
(import/export/generate sql/ftp,IFS) etc.  I do know that FEU has picked up
a lot of that lately so the functional differences may not be that great.

However, as I have mentioned in the past the attempt to move development
off of the green screen has just died.  Not a Surveyor/400 problem but we
had stability issues, desktop performance issues, functionality issues,
etc.  And couple this with a departmental/company attitude of not altering
the existing green screen applications to some sort of windows based
environment......the whole thing kind of died.  So green screen stuff is
still green screen stuff but new applications go out in either Domino or
WAS.  It's mixed but based upon the companies priorities it will have to
do.

So, our developers still use and like FEU a lot.  Personally I use
Surveyor/400 and will try to pick another time to see if it makes sense to
change.  The cost for either product is not very much so I don't feel to
guilty in doubling up.  Nothing against the other products (remember the
DBU comparison was made 15 years ago) but I can say we like both products.


Michael Crump
Manager, Computing Services
Saint-Gobain Containers
1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
Muncie, IN  47302
(765)741-7696
(765)741-7012 f
(800)428-8642

"The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us
from the support of a cause we believe to be just"  Abraham Lincoln