With data connectors for OI’s Linear Hash, U2, D3 and SQL, and QM and
Universe in the pipeline, we are seeing a growing number of MultiValue
VARs and manufacturers showing interest in Revelation’s O4W toolset;
not least people who recently attended International Spectrum and the
D3 conference recently. However, it is not easy for everyone to
travel to these events.

For this reason, you might be interested in a new video that I have
just released. It basically runs through a real world proof of
concept application that I have built for one of our client’s in
Ireland. Created by a non-developer (with a little help from the
technical guys), it really does show what can be achieved really
quickly with O4W.

Anyway, enough of the sales pitch and sorry for the blatant plug
here.

The video is linked from my blog (http://tinyurl.com/63vha7n) and, if
this peaks your interest, you can get started with O4W by downloading
the OpenInsight 9.2.1 evaluation software and working with the Quick
Start Guide or my video series looking at getting started with the
toolset.

OK, I took the bait and I'm on the hook.

The POC is compelling. My first thought was that I wasn't so much
interested in the POC, but how it was created. Yes, there are other
videos that go into how to use O4W to create a GUI, and they are quite
interesting. I will go through all of them.

O4W looks very much like DesignBais to me, and I mean that as a
compliment. There must be similarities in functionality of course,
because they do the Same thing. And similarities in evoking the
functionality seem to indicate that both of these products are doing
these things the Right way. IMHO of course.

Now that O4W has connectors to MV databases other than OpenInsight, I
think developers who have not started web development have yet another
chance to do this in a comfortable way, with a product specifically
designed for Pick people. O4W could also be a tool for creating quick
prototypes for those who use other tools. I suspect we won't be
seeing many more tools like this in this industry, so anyone who
hasn't jumped on the train yet should consider this the last train out
of the station.

Personally I would probably not use O4W for my own development, though
I wouldn't mind getting familiar with it. I prefer mainstream tools
and I'm not compelled by statements like "you don't need to write any
code". To me, that implies that someone else has control which I
don't. But with control comes complexity. That's the trade off which
I accept - but I would not impose that on our clients. I would
consider O4W for clients who are looking for a way to move from CUI to
GUI, they don't know mainstream technologies yet, and they will
probably not want to move to something else as the world continues to
change. Anyone who has been attracted by other Pick-oriented webdev
products should take a look at O4W if for some reason they have not
purchased one of the competing offerings - or if they did make a
purchase and were not happy.

It would be nice to find unemployed Pick developers out there who were
skilled with tools like this. There are a Lot of end-users out there
looking for both simple and complex GUI, for intranet and extranet.
I'd be happy to refer end-users to skilled developers. A few days ago
I was talking with someone who gets a lot of résumés in the Pick
market, and requests for services from end-users. He said Pick guys
are proud to cite 30 years of experience in this market with Pick
BASIC and he's left to ask "yes, and what else?" There seems to be a
demand for skills, and a supply of people. If those people aren't
going to learn how to use tools like Java or .NET or PHP, they should
at least get familiar with tools like O4W.

T

Hi Tony,

Thank you for your posting in reply to mine. I am sorry to hear that
O4W is ‘probably’ not for you, but it is probably worth pointing out
that, as well as the wizard side of the tool, there is a more
technical side for developers as well.

Whereas I am only skilled enough to use the wizards and thereby
generate the basic screen formats that this affords me (at the
moment), professional Pick programmers like yourself can leverage your
current skills, take full control and weave your own formatted pages
using Basic+ (OI’s flavour of the Pick coding language). Bryan and
the team have documented a whole set of APIs in the O4W Reference
Guide and I’ll happily get a copy to anyone that cares to email me for
one (my details can be found at www.martynphillips.tel).

My technical colleagues will either correct me or put more meat on
these bones, but I understand that this enables Pick developers to
create stunning Web 2.0 systems using familiar code, rather than
having to settle for set templates and formats or having to go off and
learn one of the web coding languages.

Time will tell, but I believe that the guys at RevUS have and will
continue to deliver a toolset that will enable existing Pick
developers to further extend the life of their systems and therefore
their (or their clients) investment in their MultiValue systems. I am
also heartened by some of the conversations that I have had with
people outside of the MultiValue community about OI and O4W and I’m
looking forward to expanding our collective MultiValue reach though
this great toolset.

Keep well,
M.