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Summary - This RAD tool pulls its weight, but still suffers from some bugs and annoying licensing. Come along as Joshua Drake puts Omnis Studio through its paces. (1,500 words)
s an e-commerce and Linux consultant, I must consistently create custom interfaces to help customers manage their data-driven Websites. Usually, we choose to create custom software within PHP. However, with the Omnis Studio RAD tool, we can quickly develop a product that can run on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS with a consistent look and feel. Such a product could easily allow us to branch into other areas of data management.
I have always considered programming to be one of my secondary skills. I use PHP to create dynamic Websites, or Perl to query a database and convert the results to SGML, and at one time I was a competent C programmer. I have long since given it up for more "functional" languages, though. After reviewing Omnis's Website and product literature, I thought Omnis Studio might be worthy of a review.
Acquiring the software was very simple. I called a product manager, asked him about the product, and received it the next day via Federal Express. This was a big plus -- even in the dot-com era, we should still be able to contact a real person who is willing to help.
Installation and requirements
Installing Omnis Studio is simple: you mount the CD-ROM, enter Linux (through a console or graphical application launcher) and type ./setup. Once it is installed, the product tells you where to start the Omnis Suite, which for me was /usr/local/omnis/os24/. The command name was ./omnis.
Even in an idle state, Omnis Studio takes up over 10 MB of RAM. The docs recommend running Omnis Studio with at least 64 MB of RAM, but after using the program, I would strongly suggest a minimum of 128 MB. Companies have begun to assume that every computer has a lot of RAM. This is a mistake, especially if you turn to the Linux community for product adoption. Many Linux users, including developers, are running older machines and...