Paradox vs Progress

Could someone give me some information as to how Paradox stacks up against a database called Progress.

My exposure to Progress is limited, but I'll throw out my two cents worth...

I haven't done any Progress application development myself - only support work with other Progress developers and databases. So I'm familiar with the product - just not enough to give you a fairly comprehensive comparison. But I can provide a little perspective.


Assuming that you're comparing Paradox 9 to Progress 9 - they're both 4GL platforms (meaning that they're both built to be the be-all-end-all for developers).


Both have a proprietary language at their core - Paradox's ObjectPAL versus Progress4GL (which is based on C). Paradox's ObjectPAL has been around for several years as an object oriented platform, while object oriented technology in Progress is not as mature (bits and pieces were introduced with Progress 8).


When you purchase Paradox 9 - you get the database management system and the development platform in one package. With Progress, you must purchase the RDBMS and the application development environment separately - at greater cost.


Paradox's RAD platform is mature, and has aged well. While it still lacks many of the advantages of Delphi or VB 6.0, it is intuitive and easy to develop applications in.


Progress' ProVision RAD tool isn't as mature, and the programmers I've worked with found it to be cumbersome. In fact, they rarely edited code in the tool.


For cost - Paradox has Progress beat handily. Pricing Progress puts it in the same ballpark as Sybase or Oracle. Paradox, like SQL Server or InterBase, is priced reasonably - in development costs as well as runtime costs. Paradox is by far cheaper and easier to deploy to end users!


Now, for the databases themselves, while Paradox can be used as a client/server database platform, Progress is a true RDBMS, like Oracle or Sybase. That includes all of the transactional control, scalability, and security features - areas that frustrates Paradox developers still.


While Paradox ObjectPAL and Progress4GL are proprietary, both platforms allow integration with other languages. Progress just recently rolled out Java support for its RDBMS (in the form of an embedded JVM), and provides support for both XML and ASP.


Paradox has always been compatible with any tool that can take advantage of the BDE - including Delphi, C++Builder, and JBuilder. So web-enabling Paradox databases is possible through those platforms.


There are common ODBC drivers available for Paradox, but Progress has their own proprietary ODBC driver that's avaliable with the RDBMS.


Perhaps the biggest advantage that Progress has over Paradox is its availability for non-Windows platforms, like Linux, AIX, HP-UX, or Solaris.


So if you're planning on building a multi-platform solution, Progress might fit your needs. If you're sticking with a Windows 95/98/NT/2K only solution, though, Paradox is still a good contender.