Approaching Omnis again scares me, too much to learn?

[Bryan Brodie]

hi Das, Wendy, Randy, list,

I think it is a mistake to neglect the native Omnis datafile, but those of
us who used it well in the past, are in the minority today.

Laptops, desktops and local servers hosted on intranet LANs are dying, but
that was the environment that Omnis and the native datafile thrived in.

Omnis Inc has made it clear that native datafile is kaput, by no longer
supporting multi-user in the MacOS. So, no more multi-user native DF Omnis
MacOS apps going forward.

I saw the writing on the wall back in 2012. Omnis withering, not keeping up
with standards, no longer a 'rapid application development' platform,
limited compared to Linux / Apache / NGINX, expensive to license / scale
compared to free open source solutions.

Looked into iOS but too proprietary, and Apple is too capricious. So, I
took the plunge with LAMP architecture, native JS, HTML 5 / CSS, and beefed
up my SQL skills.

Now very happy creating small business web applications, using a code
generator engine written in Omnis (6).

I can singlehandedly, cost effectively create small workgroup solutions
that integrate with Google APIs (drive, mail, calendar) - for free. Native
code, no hoop-jumping and can solve most problems by searching Stack
Overflow.

PHP recently went to V7 and is awesome: if you like Omnis programming you'd
love PHP. Plus, once you get down the basics, there are literally millions
of resources to learn the fine details.

Apple is getting ready to totally lock down the MacOS - it will be iOS with
a keyboard and mouse next go round and you won't be able to look under the
hood.

I was 53 when I switched, glad I did, my business acumen has served me well
in the transition and the open source world is amazing and limitless.

I made good money developing Omnis small business software, but I
personally do not feel that the platform is well suited to mobile / web
development.

That's my personal opinion but I did use Omnis since 1985 and I still use
it, for creating my own web application system development tools.

I am glad to see so much activity in the Omnis world and hope it is around
for a very long time.

IMHO open source & Linux are where its at.

bryan brodie

From: Plum Hollow Software <plum_hollow at cogeco.ca>
>
> Hi Wendy,
>
> I?m in the same position as you, I have a lot of small clients anywhere
> from 1 to 15 users per client.  The DML is a perfect solution for these
> clients however Omnis Software told me to move to SQL because DML support
> and enhancements are not there focus.  So I have to decide whether or not
> to continue paying for my developer program.
>
> Randy
>
> > On Jan 3, 2018, at 5:19 AM, Wendy <wizardcompserv at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Hi There
> >
> > Happy New Year!!
> >
> > Most developers will call me a dinosaur!!  But my business has always
> concentrated on the 'small' users - they do not have an IT department -
> they do not want or need SQL or Web based products.
> >
> > You will not earn a fortune this way but there are a lot of small
> business out there that need this kind of support and consultancy and they
> have kept me going for the last 18 years and I am still getting enquiries
> from new customers.
> >
> > Just my 2p's worth for 2018
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Wendy Osbaldestin
> > Wizard Computer Services
> > Tel:  01260271647
> > Mobile: 07740541021
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: omnisdev-en [mailto:omnisdev-en-bounces at lists.omnis-dev.com] On
> Behalf Of Das Goravani
> > Sent: 02 January 2018 23:55
> > To: OmnisDev List - English
> > Subject: Approaching Omnis again scares me, too much to learn?
> >
> >
> > Hello All,
> >
> > I am RE approaching Omnis with a view to becoming a developer/consultant
> to businesses.
> >
> > I am completely expert with Omnis and the native database it provides,
> but don?t know SQL or anything else, I only know Omnis. I don?t know any
> other language at all.  I go back to 86 but haven?t done anything for ten
> years.
> >
> > It?s scary enough to have to learn SQL and how to connect to databases.
> But all the stuff you guys and gals discuss here and on the other forum
> scares me.  How did you all learn all about Java and Jason and Restful etc
> etc.  How do you keep it straight in your heads?
> >
> > My real question is this:  If I could learn SQL and how to setup and
> maintain backends and the connectivity, is that enough to be a consultant
> today?  I imagine right away the next point is that businesses will want
> phone access apps, tablet apps, to access their databases and then I?d be
> looking at Javascript which I don?t know.
> >
> > At age 57 and reapproaching, I wonder how much time it takes to learn
> these things and begin consulting.
> >
> > Are all these fancy other things smaller than Omnis learning itself?  I
> sure hope so.  It took a good while to learn Omnis.  I?m very good at Omnis
> but only Omnis Native.  Don?t yet know what a Schema is, but I can do
> notation to control anything, I can do complex interfaces and handle
> complex data.  Just dont know anything else.  Do any businesses still go
> for using the Native Datafile?  With that I?m ready already.
> >
> > One reason I want to learn SQL is to earn more.  The businesses for
> which the Native datafile is appropriate are smaller and poorer.  I believe
> you can charge more to the SQL requiring businesses.  Comments?
> >
> > Is the "Lone Developer" still possible?   You all seem to be in teams.
> >
> > Just scared badly.   Any help appreciated.
>