Abstract

The Ingres relational database management system is used as the standard RDBMS at the environmental sector of the National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection (RIVM). The aim of this report is to select an application development system for applicatons using an Ingrees database. Different solutions are compared on a number od qualification and Ingrees Windows4GL is selected. Ingrees Windows4GL uses a agraphical user interface (GUI) which puts high demands on the hardware. To specify these demands benchmark tests are done on a number of configurations from hewlett Packard, Digital, SUN and PC's. These results show which configuration is suitable for a team of 4 concurrent developers. Windows4GL-programs can be used on different GUI's and different computer platforms. One possible choice is to use X terminals and workstations or to use Personal computers with MS-Windows. The costs of these two possibilities are compared. With the present prices a PC is in most cases cheaper than a comparable mix of X terminals and UNIX workstations.