[ic] Get ready, Restart! Do I use IC or what?

Gert van der Spoel gert at 3edge.com
Sat Jun 20 12:38:19 UTC 2009


> Hi All,
> 
> it's been years since I've developed with either MV 3 or IC 4 but I've
> got a project I'll be talking on in the next couple weeks, so I'm in a
> hurry to get up to speed.
> 
> This may be an unfair question, but how is the state of IC today,
> functionality, dependability, and performance wise, and the overall
> forum collaboration?

Fuctionality: outstanding!
Dependability: unsurpassed!
Performance: like the energizer bunny!
Forum Collaboration: as if it's one big family :)
 
The more boring answer: 
Some reports have come in with regard to 5.6.0/5.6.1 UTF8 support.
If you need UTF8 then 5.6.1 is your choice. If you do not at all need
anything related to multilingual or UTF8 then at this very moment, like
right now today, now now now, your best bet will probably be 5.4.3. But
hopefully not for long.

Work is underway to further improve stability in this area (you can check
the Github fork of David:
http://github.com/machack666/interchange/tree/master although this one is
still EXPERIMENTAL and not suggested for production use!).

If you know any programming, you will most likely be able to iron out some
quirks in your own install. But hopefully the next version will offer
further stability, including full UTF8 support, for the majority of users.

There is a rather active IRC channel in case you run into issues:
http://www.icdevgroup.org/i/dev/users/community

There are also further activities surrounding Interchange, such as their
attendance of the German LinuxTag 2009 fair.

Never a dull moment within the community!


> And how does it current rate against other alternatives?

Alternatives?? 

> 
> My primary 'must haves' include the ability for easy, self maintenance
> of products (including imagery, discounting structures, inventory on
> hand), product associations and recommendations, freight carrier
> pricing integration, and integration into credit card merchant 
> clearinghouses.

Most of it is there, be gentle and use sweet words and you can probably get
IC to do all of that for you.

> Perhaps less important questions but still issues like threads, did
> they
> ever get fixed?

Regarding threads there has just been a discussion about a week ago (see
mailinglist:
http://www.icdevgroup.org/pipermail/interchange-users/, searchable via
icdevgroup.org):
- I believe Perl 5.8.8 and above can be run with threads
- However DBI apparently still does not recommend to run with threads
- However there appears to be a 10-30% performance penalty when running with
threads

So Perl 5.8.8 and above you can, but up to you.

> Anyway, I hope someone will humor me and we can dialog over the
> weekend.  Thanks again...

Enough humor? :)

CU,

Gert




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