After Nick said:

>> Then again there is Transact.  Not as fast as a "VISUAL"
>> language, but it has won several language shootouts in the past.
>> Not as expensive as COGNOS.
>> Easier to learn than Speedware.
>> Faster than COBOL.

John Clogg said:

> Wait a minute, Faster than COBOL?!?  I assume you mean
> development time, and not run-time efficiency...

Certainly faster development (maybe 10-40 percent of the code
for most reasonable applications), but to best of my knowledge
on the average NOT any slower run-time either.  Transact/iX
compiles into a pure NMPRG file or a module you can put in an
NMXL, just like COBOL.  Only the old CM Transact still runs in
interpreter mode;  that was supplanted on MPE/iX systems like
seven or more years ago.

And NM Trandebug/iX provides a real slick host-based symbolic
debugger.  Old rumor has it that several third-parties bought
Transact/iX some years ago just to get a detailed look at the
capabilities of Trandebug/iX because it was so good....

For many years on Classic platforms the answer to the slow
interpreter was FASTRAN from Performance Software Group,
a.k.a. Nick.    :-)     FASTRAN would (and still will) give you a
CM PROG file.

Ken Sletten