Instead of a user group, the users who rely on the Cognos Application Development Tools (ADT) now swap tips and seek clues about PowerHouse’s future on an Internet mailing list. Powerhouse-L discussion featured hard questions about Cognos’ commitment to the language’s future in recent days, as well as some confirmation of new database support for the fourth generation language. Customers wanted to know if Cognos was including PowerHouse among its seminars at the upcoming Cognos user conference in Orlando next month. Bob Deskin, the PowerHouse Web product manager, reported “The answer is, unfortunately, no. Given the amount of resources it requires to prepare even one stream and the declining response over previous conferences, it was felt not to be a viable proposition. I am saddened, but it’s hard to argue.”

Before long, customers were wondering if the ADT part of Cognos’ business — now dwarfed by the Business Intelligence products — was keeping up with their demands. Bob Berry, Director of Customer Operations, pointed out the 4GL will support the Eloquence database on HP-UX in a beta release sometime in August, with a general release in the fall. Berry said the language gets an 8.4xC release for the HP 3000 by July, and added he believes that release will include PowerHouse Web and Axiant in the box for the HP 3000. “This is the work of a very talented team that continues to produce great software,” Berry said. He added that the company is reviewing support of the Itanium processor family for the Cognos ADT products.

Some HP 3000 customers even began to ask about Cognos’ willingness to support the PowerHouse family on any 3000 hardware emulation products which may emerge over the next few years. Berry said that the state of the ADT base today “is similar to the Y2K situation. HP has announced the discontinuance of the 3000 line and their customer base must decide which way they are going to turn. Cognos continues to support and enhance the ADT line of products. The FUD (Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt) is as prominent today as it was back in the late nineties with the Y2K issue. I have seen a commitment to PowerHouse over the past few years growing. I can assure you that the license transaction level for both North America and the rest of the world still remains strong, as well as the number of customers that maintain support for their PowerHouse licenses.”

Cognos management had not commented on by press time whether it would let customers license the ADT products for use on an emulated HP 3000, but Burton Leathers, a developer from the ADT group, reported that “So long as Cognos supports the ADT products on a PA-RISC system, then users should be able to use an emulator. I pointedly ignore details such as licensing. A PA-RISC emulator must, to deserve the name, be indistinguishable from a PA-RISC system. It should, therefore, be possible to run ADT products without any change on any such emulator.”