Is anyone still programming in ObjectStar (formerly known as Huron)

Question

Huron was a 4GL that originated in the IBM 360 mainframe world in the early 1990s, created and sold by the Amdahl Corporation. It had a proprietary interpreted language and database that people either loved or loathed, and its most notable features were its unusual Rules Language syntax, and its tight integration with its query language, where you had to code your own nested loops to effect a Join.

With the appropriate use of indirection (such as its archetypal 'CALL TABLE.RULE') it was possible to quickly create exceedingly compact, elegant and extensible solutions. It was also possible, in the wrong hands, to create nightmarish unmaintainable monstrosities that sadly proliferated, and did nothing for its reputation.

It was renamed and rebranded as ObjectStar in the mid 1990s, ported to Unix and Windows NT, and given a UI component with which it was possible to create event-driven client-server applications that would run without modification on Windows or Unix.

It never really gained the critical mass needed to become a top-tier development tool, and around the turn of the millennium it was pretty much fizzling out.

In retrospect, it's something of a historical aberration; hence my question:

Is anyone still using it?

Or has even heard of it?

Solution 1

I don’t know what possessed me to do a global-search on ObjectStar, but when this page popped up with a relatively recent timestamp, I had to have a read! It was a pleasant surprise to see updates from so many ex-colleagues talking about the good times.

I was one of the earlier attendees of Dave’s courses back in 1991, and Huron/ObjectStar provided my bread and butter from then on for 15 years. It’s a shame the product never got to critical mass, it suffered the double whammy of plummeting interest in mainframes (weren’t they supposed to be obsolete by now?) and increasing interest in Buy-Not-Build over Do-It-Yourself. Its availability on other platforms helped a bit, but there was just too much established competition out there.

I suppose if I did develop a specialisation, it was latterly in Performance Analysis and Tuning, borne out of the discovery that if I put in some effort to locate badly-executing code, fixing it was often trivial and the CPU savings phenomenal. I’ll always remember my record was a 99.95% CPU reduction in a long-running job from a single-line code change, but savings of over 90% were not unusual. It was hard but thrilling work, a nice change from the relatively straightforward day-to-day SysAdmin tasks for which I was actually employed.

Gratitude comes in many shapes and sizes - I was shown the door in 2006, and I have been coding IF statements ever since. However, there’s not a week that goes by where I don’t wish I still had access to a Workbench for one reason or another. It was simply the best environment for doing any sort of adhoc data analysis I have ever used. It’s a shame I’ve had to mothball all the knowledge and experience I’d built up over the years, but I guess that’s progress …

So, for those of you still working with it, you have my envy, make sure you make the most of it!

Regards & Best Wishes to All, Raj

Solution 2

Hi Brian - All I can say is that ObjectStar spoils you for anything else - except Assembler, of course. I well remember those early days - I was on the first course (I think) back in 1991 at good old Dogmersfield, and did the odd bit of training when the 'real' trainers were too busy.

Yes, those 'lightbulb' moments were great to see - I remember one clever young chap who suddenly 'got it', muttered 'I need to go and take a walk' and half an hour later came back and condensed an entire library of rules into just seven. They worked, too.

I'm still at it, down here in NZ. Currently in the 5th year of a '3 to 6 month' contract with BNZ, but as they let me work from home and do more or less what hours I like, that's sweet. Must say this is a great place to live.

Oh yes - and I remember teaching Sytems Administration in Singapore too. Man, they hauled me into a performance problem they had while I was there, so I did 160 hours in 2 weeks - I wasn't right for 6 months after that. That was the time that I had to resort to starting teaching at the set time after lunch whether there was anybody else in the room or not - the attendees would go off for lunch and be kidnapped by their managers. I got 'em back an hour late the first 2 days, but they soon learned to come back on time.

Happy days, eh?

Solution 3

It's now owned by Tibco. Pretty sure that Tesco in UK uses it. Australia has about 5 sites including banks & govt depts, including one site supported by the disgraced Satyam. Also still used in banking in New Zealand. Pretty sure the banks will re-platform as soon as practical.

Solution 4

I know of at least two companies in Belgium who are still using it. It is now owned by TIBCO and is called Object Service Broker

Solution 5

Wow, somebody asking about ObjectStar! I worked for Amdahl in the UK as a Huron/ObjectStar trainer from 1991 to 1998, based at the quite wonderful Dogmersfield Park in the UK, and it took me round the world too: in one heady 13 week period I trained folks in 10 different countries and reached a point of exhaustion before being sent home to sleep for a week. Amdahl was the best company I ever worked for, and introduced me to the best manager I ever had (Hi Carole), and the best experiences at work I ever had. (Yes, I miss it!)

The software was pretty good too, great fun to work with, completely different from anything else around, and fantastic to teach - you never saw so many lightbulbs popping on over people's heads as they went through increasingly powerful waves of realisation of just what they could do with this deceptively powerful toolset. A tremendous shame that ObjectStar never reached critical mass. I worked in the UK for the ObjectStar International "rump" for six months in the UK before it was sold to Tibco, and as far as I know the guys are still there somewhere in Tibco. Hi to all the thousands I must have trained in O* too. The three UK and Ireland trainers are still in touch, and one of the Canadians too.

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Comments

[AJ.]

Is this thread for real? Or is there an inside joke somewhere...

[Kostis]

@Jonathan Sampson... So from Canada, across the USA, to Europe and the Asia Pacific regions is a 'Small geographic area'? From the early 90s (when you were a little boy of about 8) to the present day is 'a specific moment in time'? Developers from IBM mainframes, to Unix, to Windows are an 'extraordinarily narrow situation'? Your 30k reputation means nothing in this context. You know nowhere near as much as you imagine.

[Brett Ryan]

I think the reasoning for closure is proven invalid since there is a decent amount of answers/views.

[Vilva]

I'm still working in Object star development project.

[Alfredo Hu]

I heard a rumor that ObjectStar will reach end of support in 2015.

[Kostis]

I wonder if they'll give it away after that? I have the installer for an old version somewhere, but I've forgotten how to install it :) Are there installation docs online anywhere?

[Kostis]

Thanks. I knew Tibco owned it now, but not that it had been renamed (again), or that it's still in use. Some big names used it in the early days - Tesco, Marks & Spencer (large UK retailers). By today's standards, it was very quirky - imagine a language with no IF statement - but cool at the time.

[Kostis]

I know exactly how you felt when you "looked up and the world had left you behind" - a very real sense of loss. London, Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, then back to the UK was how it was for me, from 93-01. Never had so much fun professionally since.

[Kostis]

OSB??? It's Huron, Jim, but not as we know it...

[Kostis]

"Did you know that the original inventor of Huron was a Dane?".... doesn't everyone? :) I met Helge a few times, he was always very pleasant. Dara was a bit scarier, I thought. Brains the size of a planet, both of them.

[Brett Ryan]

I was just informed that Medicare in Australia use it still.