Minisoft R&D manager Joe Grimm hosted an hour-plus chat session on guidelines for JDBC and Java connectivity on HP 3000s, as Interex opened up a new Web chat room. Grimm said that 3000 managers just getting started with JDBC “will need to learn Java and SQL,” and praised the features of Symantec’s Visual Cafe and Borland’s JBuilder, “especially the auto-completion.” Grimm also said the JDBC/32 product from Minisoft has had its fundamental JavaShop development environment discontinued. “The main reason was that companies such as Symantec, Borland, and IBM have developed very good [development] tools,” Grimm said. He also noted that “In our experience, the speed of Java has been good, once things get executing. Sometimes loading the virtual machine is slow on certain platforms. The speed of data access through a JDBC driver is very close to the speed of data access through an ODBC driver.”

Grimm also said that JDBC/32 makes it “very possible to access a database on one HP 3000 from another 3000. We have had customers access data on the HP 3000 from PCs, from applets through NT and HP-UX, and from Java applications running on HP-UX.” He also said Minisoft will soon release a version of JDBC/32 “which is almost completely pure Java. The only part that will not be Java will be the database-specific software on the HP 3000. The result of this will be great flexibility in deploying the driver in 1- to n-tier configurations.” Grimm explained that this 3000 code does things like DBOPENs and DBGETs, and “Since it pertains to the HP 3000 only, it does not need to be portable — therefore it is written is C to be as fast as possible.” A driver written almost entirely in Java lets a developer determine its deployment to make the best use of network and processor resources. “It also allows certain parts of the driver to act as a proxy, so the HP 3000 does not have to be ‘seen’ by clients accessing its databases,” Grimm said. “This can keep your HP 3000 off the Internet, but still allow users on the Internet to access data on the 3000.

Meanwhile, new HP 3000 Internet resource 3kworld.com has scheduled a chat session on 3000 manufacturing guidance for Tuesday, September 21 at 11AM Pacific time. Manufacturing expert Terry Floyd of the Support Group inc. will be ready to give advice on enhancements to manufacturing systems, counsel about how to integrate new ERP technology with the 3000, and how to make transitions and stay on the 3000 platform. The NewsWire has been asked to help host the ERP session, which will meet in the Support Group’s chat room (located on 3kworld’s site) on the Chat Rooms page at www.3k.world.com/chat.asp.