Evaluating Client/Server Development Tools

Every day it seems another MIS shop is starting a client/server tool evaluation. Some groups have client/server experience and are looking to move to second generation tools, while others are just entering the client/server world. In either case, it is unjustifiably common for these teams to start the evaluations from scratch. With so many organizations and publications having completed similar evaluations, this should never be the case.

There are at least two excellent starting points for your evaluation that are available on the Web. The first was put together by BYTE Magazine/NSTL. They used it to compare Delphi, Visual Basic, PowerBuilder and SQLWindows/Centura. It is short on detail, but provides an excellent framework to start. The other great starting point was put together by David Linthicum and published in DBMS magazine. In particular, the article is accompanied by a spreadsheet to which your team can add its ratings and weightings.