Eloquence brings Version 8 to Windows
March 31, 2009
Marxmeier Software released the Version B.08.00 build of its Eloquence database for the Windows platform this month. Among many enhancements, the release improves scalability through better threading, enhances recovery utility to support point-in-time recovery, as well as fine-tunes a utility that mimics the QUERY report tool used on the HP 3000.
Eloquence has notched many success stories during the Transition Era, starting with a notable contribution to Summit Information Systems' credit union application migration. The new features, listed in an extensive technical note at the Marxmeier Web site, deliver the same capabilities that Marxmeier rolled out in its HP-UX version of B.08.00 last fall. The database server now supports replication and case-insensitive indexes, for example. The product that has included its own programming language now has full Windows keyboard mapping, too.
Marxmeier has been adding the features through optional, soft-rollout patches throughout 2008, but this official release brings all of the software to the Windows 32-bit Intel (x86) and 64-bit (x64) architectures. HP's fifth-generation Proliant server line, one of the more popular blade-style hardware platforms for migrating 3000 sites, employs Xeon CPUs to run Windows Server 2008 x64.
Marxmeier has been developing software for many years that brings HP 3000 IMAGE experience to platforms like the Proliant BL line. QUERY, a default report tool from MPE/iX that's used in a surprising number of sites, made the jump to HP-UX in 2004 as a result of work inside Marxmeier's labs. Version 7.0 of Eloquence delivered a Windows version of what Marxmeier calls QUERY3K.
The newest release of QUERY3K — initially ported from the 3000 using the INTRINS/iX toolkit from Allegro Consultants — includes enhancements for Windows users. Version 8.0's QUERY3K improves support of the Eloquence database limits that exceed the previous TurboIMAGE limits.
Marxmeier reports that QUERY3K should now support the following limits
• a record size of up to 5120 bytes
• 2048 items per database
• 500 data sets
• 1024 items per set.
• The item type 'B' (binary) is now mapped to 'X'.
Developments such as creating a threading engine faster than the one in the operating system, or retooling a ported 3000 utility to accomodate advanced Eloquence features, show the attention to detail that's made the database an easy choice for migrating customers. Some migrations can survive on technical choices which are less aware of the HP 3000 designs. More customized, in-house applications demand more explicit knowledge of the 3000 way.