Your company is being merged with a much larger company. The new company uses Informix-NewEra because it is designed for large applications, and your smaller company has been using INFORMIX-4GL. The new management wants all the 4GL stuff moved to NewEra. Read this book.

It is an introduction to programming in Informix-NewEra (NewEra is Informix’s new language), primarily aimed at experienced 4GL application programmers. The book is intended to supplement the eight books in the manual set. All the code examples in the book are on the enclosed disk.

Informix-NewEra is an open, graphical, object-oriented development environment for client/server enterprise database applications. The major changes from INFORMIX-4GL are the way the GUI is developed and the object orientation. NewEra supports about 75 percent of the statements of INFORMIX-4GL.

First, object orientation and the basics of the NewEra programming language are described. Then the process of developing an application using visual programming and the Application Builder is discussed. Succeeding chapters cover more NewEra capabilities and how they are used, with many examples. Developing class libraries, extending classes, and migrating from INFORMIX-4GL are described in the final chapters.

Especially notable are the clear descriptions of object-oriented concepts such as encapsulation, class, and inheritance in chapter 1. Chapter 6 discusses these steps for developing a NewEra application: create database schema, identify functionality and interaction of windows, create class libraries, create windows, create menus, add code to glue application objects, create reports, and make cosmetic changes. Each of these steps is discussed in detail. For instance, under cosmetic changes, a list of suggested features, code, and customizations is given.

The writing is lucid, the organization is logical, and the illustrations are clear. After reading this book, I am confident I could begin developing a fairly complex Informix-NewEra application.