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.
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.)

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