Wirt Atmar <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>My particular faith in the HP3000 as the best possible business computing
>platform is absolute. My faith in HP itself is unfortunately somewhat less.
>But these questions can be legitimately asked about every specific platform,
>Windows NT included. The attraction of NT is not the hardware or software,
>but the legendary commitment of Bill Gates to his products.

If "the legendary commitment of Bill Gates to his products" can make
Windows and NT (with their unbelievably primitive seeds) what they are now,
just imagine what would happen if Bill Gates would choose to apply "the
legendary commitment of Bill Gates" to a solid platform such as the HP3000.
Does anyone with connections to Bill Gates care to make a proposal to him?
Are you there, Ken Sletten?  At least, you are in the same area of the
world :-)


>In nature, species which adopt a generalist's strategy such as Oracle's only
>survive well during those times of great disturbance, when a great deal of
>new resource constantly becomes available. But once the world settles down --
>and it always eventually does -- the generalist inevitably loses in every
>different environment in which he originally prospered -- simply because
>there comes to be a specialist that does the same task better and more
>efficiently, at lower cost, than the generalist.

You are surely thinking of IMAGE, the ONLY database management system that
offers the "generalist" (and thereby inefficient but widely accepted)
methods of SQL, ODBC, and JDBC, as well as the "specialist" (and thereby
efficient kick-their-pants-off) methods of its intrinsics -- DBGET, DBPUT,
DBUPDATE, DBDELETE, etc. -- , of direct Java access such as ADBC, and so
on...


>At the moment, the best strategy for the long-term success of the HP3000 lies
>not in being either a pure generalist or a pure specialist, but in providing
>a very well implemented SQL language shell for IMAGE (necessary for
>client/server and application migration to the HP3000) and a high-speed ODBC
>access method (necessary for JDBC and other network computer model
>components), while retaining all of the HP3000's traditional simplicity and
>high-speed intrinsic database access methods. This model is a mixture of
>"emerging standards" (which, as Alfredo, has long pointed out, is perhaps the
>ultimate oxymoron), a constant adaptation to trends ("investment
>protection"), while retaining the extreme efficiency of those programs and
>applications that wish to take advantage of it.

I should have read this paragraph BEFORE I wrote my paragraph above.  Oh,
well...


>These are still interesting times, as the ancient Chinese curse has it, but,
>as I've mentioned before, I do believe that the HP3000 is more like the
>computer of the future than any other commercial computing platform currently
>in existence. It is simple, tough-as-nails, and reliable enough to be
>operated for years on end without a specifically trained data processing
>staff. All it lacks is a bit of push.


On the same topic, [log in to unmask] wrote:

>   Good thing Image/SQL works so well, I suppose Oracle just couldn't
>compete...  With b-trees coming on Image and SQL support, I guess we
>don't really need Oracle, but it is too bad that this will be yet
>another reason software vendors won't/can't port to the HP3000.

How about a massive campaign to educate software vendors on the strengths
of IMAGE so they can port their troubled systems FROM Oracle (and other
common DBMSs) TO IMAGE?  I am not thinking in terms of IMAGE as being all
things to all people, but in terms of the significant subset of business
problems that IMAGE can solve better than any other DBMS.  I have done this
for two decades now (less so in the last few years, due to HP's apathy),
but I am afraid I have been preaching to the choir.  I'll be delighted to
go on the road and preach to the standard masses.  But I need to know that
HP's upper management is as committed as I am to IMAGE and to the HP3000
(and as most of the members of the worldwide HP3000 community are).  I am
not thinking in terms of just reading one slide after another (as if the
audience did not know how to read).  I am thinking (and feeling) in terms
of exciting LIVE sessions that show people what they can do and that pops
their eyes open to possibilities they didn't even know existed.


>   What HP can and should contribute is a rational and effective
>marketing effort that leverages the HP3K strengths. They seem to be
>beginning to address this area.

It's never too soon :-)




 _______________
|               |
|               |
|            r  |  Alfredo                     [log in to unmask]
|          e    |                           http://www.adager.com
|        g      |  F. Alfredo Rego               Tel 208 726-9100
|      a        |  Manager, R & D Labs           Fax 208 726-2822
|    d          |  Adager Corporation
|  A            |  Sun Valley, Idaho 83353-3000            U.S.A.
|               |
|_______________|


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