Question Can You Run The Abl On A Raspberry Pi Zero?

JamesBowen

JamesBowen

19+ years progress programming and still learning.
I think I know the answer to my own question but I thought I would ask it anyway. With the introduction of the new raspberry Pi Zero and it's stupendously low cost I was wondering if it's possible to install OpenEdge 4Gl developer on Raspbian OS with access to GPIO pins.
 
I guess I'm thinking that Progress Software should consider creating a light weight run-time client that can be installed easy on any Chip-on-board computer. I know Gus hated the concept IOT but with all the reading at Raspberry/Orange Pi and other cheap computing it seams obvious direction, especially for developers like myself who does not know of any other languages.
 
They mentioned at EMEA PUG that they are looking at giving the opportunity of creating an installer that only contains what is needed, so just client networking bits for example. A step in the right direction at least!
 
And with Unix you can also install on one machine and copy the DLC directory to another. E.g. run the installer on a Debian VM, install just 4GL Dev System, and copy /dlc to the Raspberry Pi.
 
you could run a 4gl application on raspberry pi, smartphone/watch/ring etc. if it has a web ui but maybe that's cheating :)
 
One might ask, why would you want to install a tool for enterprise business applications on a $5 computer. The UI, maybe, but the main product?
 
btw how much would it cost to make a raspberry pi to something usable like a thin client (and one that wouldn't crash every 5 minutes)?

i'm not that familiar with raspberry pi but it doesn't even have a power supply, casing etc. not to mention monitor, keyboard, mouse, usb ports etc.
 
If there is a meaningful application, I would imagine it was some kind of specialized interface, probably to something other than a human.
 
another question is, what cpu does it use? if it's not a standard processor like intel, sparc, risc etc. then you would probably have to find a compatible c/c++ or other compiler and compile everything from scratch
 
tamhas said:
If there is a meaningful application, I would imagine it was some kind of specialized interface, probably to something other than a human.
Click to expand...

i see the logic in using it to program sensors, like, programming your house gate or teaching, fun etc. :)
 
you can definitely create a thin client that will run a web ui.

if i do a pug presentation on my web framework, i'm doing it on a raspberry pi :)
 
tamhas said:
One might ask, why would you want to install a tool for enterprise business applications on a $5 computer. The UI, maybe, but the main product?
Click to expand...
Progress Software too good for one of the fastest computer hardware trends, aye. 20,000 #pizeros sold out in the first day of sale. Over 5 million of these tiny things* sold world wide. I think you get my point.

*Every variation of Raspberry Pi family.
 
Cecil said:
Progress Software too good for one of the fastest computer hardware trends, aye. 20,000 #pizeros sold out in the first day of sale. Over 5 million of these tiny things* sold world wide. I think you get my point.

*Every variation of Raspberry Pi family.
Click to expand...
(I probably shouldn't bite but when has this stopped me in my life before).
There are plenty of computing platforms that are very popular (Mac, xBox, PlayStation, etc, etc, etc,) that have thousands/millions of sold units but I am not sure they would make good platforms for OpenEdge installs. I need to get more into the Raspberry Pi but I would have thought more REST webservice interface (for sensor data tracking) and/or web interface would be the right usage of OpenEdge with the platform.

Also, of the 5 million sold units, how many of those units were sold to someone that even knows Progress exist let alone would want to install on them? Not many. To my understanding it's not the reason you buy a Pi. You normally buy it, to my understanding, to tinker with.

JMTC
 
mollyfud said:
(I probably shouldn't bite but when has this stopped me in my life before).
There are plenty of computing platforms that are very popular (Mac, xBox, PlayStation, etc, etc, etc,) that have thousands/millions of sold units but I am not sure they would make good platforms for OpenEdge installs. I need to get more into the Raspberry Pi but I would have thought more REST webservice interface (for sensor data tracking) and/or web interface would be the right usage of OpenEdge with the platform.

Also, of the 5 million sold units, how many of those units were sold to someone that even knows Progress exist let alone would want to install on them? Not many. To my understanding it's not the reason you buy a Pi. You normally buy it, to my understanding, to tinker with.

JMTC
Click to expand...
Thanks for your input molly, understandably it can be hard for you to bite your tongue sometimes. Your are quite right that there is are lots of other computer systems out there and Mac is another sore subject. I think along the lines of how Windows 10 (a very, very basic core OS) can be installed on a Pi 2. OpenEdge runs on Windows.... of wait, hang that's not going to work, doh! Is there any market for PSC to enter the Single-board computers (SBCs) arena???

Sometimes I'm concerned with my career as an ABL developer that I need to know other languages like python/JavaScript/PHP/node.js to act as the glue for OpenEdge for different technologies. I'm always having to defend my job as to "Why are you using Progress?? There are better languages that can do what Progress does and a lot more.", what do I say to say that?
 
we might be abit digressing... progress is a legacy database and programming language, that's far from cutting edge, that's just the reality and it's nothing new.

the way i see it is that - ui's should definitely use web technologies i.e. javascript/html/css regardless if it's a java, python, c# etc. application. there's no advantages, only disadvantages to using fat clients these days.

in my opinion there's no need for middleware whether it's node.js, php etc. the entire ui can be done in javascript making calls to an appserver running the business logic and there's plenty of good javascript libraries/frameworks (that was my approach when i wrote breadjs that will be open sourced soon). middleware configurations will die out eventually, i think.

in regards to a server, unlike clients i don't think servers should run on $5 dollar hardware (although i bet you can probably build a cool cluster project with raspberry pi) and for servers, unix/linux and windows is pretty adequate.
 
Last edited:
in our case it's 4gl but there's pl/sql, transact sql etc.

but i mostly mean frameworks that render the ui in html/javascript/css on the server side in java, python, c# etc. and push the page to the browser so a large part of the ui is also done on the server side.

if you're doing the business logic in python, php etc. then i don't see any problem with that. that's basically your appserver connected to a database running the business logic.

for example: oracle's adf renders a big part of the ui in java on the server and i believe there's a few new progress frameworks where a big part of the ui is done on the server side. i believe, these configurations will die out.

i think, you can do the entire ui in javascript on the client and it will be fast, responsive and rich as any fat client. in fact, i don't think, i know :)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top