At 10:38 AM 5/24/2000, Joseph Rosenblatt wrote:
>Both COGNOS and SPEEDWARE share the same two basic failings.
>1. Neither one is a serious programming language a trait they share with all
>"user friendly", 4GL,Reportwriters, Basic based and otherwise "higher level"
>languages. These languages sacrifice flexibility for "ease of use." I never
>found COBOL, FORTRAN or assembly languages so difficult that I needed to be
>saved from the bother by a new and totally proprietary set of "easy to use"
>rules.

I have seen huge systems coded in nothing but Speedware.  They were
efficiently coded and ran quickly.  I can't say the same of Cognos because
I have no personal experience with it.  so I have to disagree with your
initial premise.

>2. They both have the same predatory pricing a trait they share with a lot
>of other software companies. Down with "Tierany."  (Tierany  is the use of
>hardware tiers in determining software prices.)

Totally true, however in the last year Speedware seems to have gotten a
reality check, but Cognos hasn't.

>Joseph "I wish I could Code in Machine Code" Rosenblatt
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From:   HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
>Of Ted Ashton
>Sent:   Wednesday, May 24, 2000 12:43 PM
>To:     [log in to unmask]
>Subject:        Re: Help !!! with alternate Cognos
>
>The anti-Cognos sentiment, at least on my part is due to two things:
>   1) The predatory pricing, about which we've heard much.
>   2) That using the Cognos products tends to be programmer-friendly and
>      machine unfriendly (resource hogging) and in an environment where we
>have
>      5 good programmers and 1 small 3000, that's not generally a good thing.
>   3) I don't know that I can blame it on Cognos, really, but the other
>      disadvantage is that since Powerhouse *is* VERY easy to use for rapid
>      development, it tends to suck in projects whose scope is beyond what
>      Powerhouse was designed to handle, making for some rather amazing (and
>      not too pretty) code.
>
>That said, there *are* many good things to say about Powerhouse and I think
>that your positive comments were entirely in order.
>
>Ted
>--
>Ted Ashton ([log in to unmask]), Info Sys, Southern Adventist University
>           ==========================================================
>One of the endlessly alluring aspects of mathematics is that its thorniest
>paradoxes have a way of blooming into beautiful theories.
>                                         -- Davis, Philip J.
>           ==========================================================
>          Deep thoughts to be found at http://www.southern.edu/~ashted