Informix Wingz
Encyclopedia
Wingz was a spreadsheet
program sold by Informix
in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Originally developed for the Macintosh, it was later distributed on Microsoft Windows
, OS/2
, NextStep
and several other commercial flavors of Unix
. Informix, used to selling a single relational database
package for thousands of dollars per site, apparently never really understood the idea of mass marketing shrinkware and was unable to break the monopoly held by Microsoft Excel
even though Wingz was technically superior and easier to use. Informix eventually gave up on the desktop market and reverted solely to database sales in the mid-1990s. Claris
also sold an extensively cleaned up version as Claris Resolve
in 1991, but it was far too late to market to have any effect.
Another clear difference between Wingz and Excel was Wingz' powerful graphing system, which allowed the resulting graphs to be placed directly in the spreadsheets. At the time Excel offered an anemic variety of 2D graphs, and they could only be displayed in a separate view. Additionally Wingz made it easy to make the graphs and modify them, allowing you to see your changes in real-time directly in the spreadsheet where the changes were being made. At the time it was an "obvious" feature, but one that no other program had managed to make work correctly.
A more hidden feature was HyperScript, a macro-programming language deliberately modelled on HyperCard
's HyperTalk
. HyperScript allowed even new users to write fairly powerful macros, which could include user-interface features such as buttons and dialog boxes. HyperScript 1.0 was missing some rather obvious features. For instance it could not open another spreadsheet, although it could refer to them if the user opened it for them.
A less hidden "feature" was that the program shipped with a number of bugs, which tainted the release. It also lacked a number of mathematical functions that Excel handled internally, and had no direct importer/exporter for Excel files.
Microsoft responded to the release of Wingz, and others such as Ashton-Tate
's Full Impact
and the Mac version of Lotus 1-2-3
that came out about the same time, by starting an extensive upgrade to Excel. They were soon showing it around claiming it would have all the features of Wingz — in-sheet graphics, large spreadsheets, etc. When it was finally released it was true many of these features were supported, but it was not considered user-friendly.
It was only a short period of time before a Wingz 1.1 release fixed many of these issues, but it was long enough that the product was never able to regain its momentum. It also seemed that Informix never really understood how to market the product, and it is likely 'Not Invented Here
' played a major part in the problems as well — the purchase of Wingz and Smartware prompted Roger Sippl, one of the founders of Informix, to leave the company.
Shortly after Sippl left, Phil White, the new CEO of Informix, announced that Informix would no longer be competing in the desktop application space. Joe Erickson, the lead developer of the Smart Spreadsheet, Wingz, Formula One VBX, Formula One ActiveX, Formula One for Java and SpreadsheetGear for .NET, left shortly after that.
Future releases focused on bringing the product to new platforms as their GUI's matured, and adding functionality to HyperScript to allow it to directly interact with databases. Soon it was being marketed primarily as a data access tool, and eventually the name Wingz was dropped and the product became HyperScript Tools. After several years of ignoring it further, it was sold off to Investment Intelligence Systems in the UK
. At some unknown point Wingz was bought by a company in San Jose, CA called PDF Solutions
which now uses Wingz as a private base for their DataPOWER Semiconductor yield management
software packages.
Claris
, Apple Computer
's onetime software arm, licensed Wingz in the early 1990s after Informix lost interest in the Mac market. They updated it slightly with the addition of the Claris-standard UI (toolbars, color palettes, etc.) and released it as Resolve in 1991. By this time Excel was entrenched, and sales of Resolve were tiny. Claris never released a Resolve-MacWrite
-Claris Impact
bundle, and so were unable to gain a foothold in the high-end market now dominated by Microsoft Office
. They eventually cancelled development in 1993, ending sales in 1994.
Spreadsheet
A spreadsheet is a computer application that simulates a paper accounting worksheet. It displays multiple cells usually in a two-dimensional matrix or grid consisting of rows and columns. Each cell contains alphanumeric text, numeric values or formulas...
program sold by Informix
Informix
IBM Informix is a family of relational database management system developed by IBM. It is positioned as IBM's flagship data server for online transaction processing as well as integrated solutions...
in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Originally developed for the Macintosh, it was later distributed on Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows
Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...
, OS/2
OS/2
OS/2 is a computer operating system, initially created by Microsoft and IBM, then later developed by IBM exclusively. The name stands for "Operating System/2," because it was introduced as part of the same generation change release as IBM's "Personal System/2 " line of second-generation personal...
, NextStep
NEXTSTEP
NeXTSTEP was the object-oriented, multitasking operating system developed by NeXT Computer to run on its range of proprietary workstation computers, such as the NeXTcube...
and several other commercial flavors of Unix
Unix
Unix is a multitasking, multi-user computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
. Informix, used to selling a single relational database
Relational database
A relational database is a database that conforms to relational model theory. The software used in a relational database is called a relational database management system . Colloquial use of the term "relational database" may refer to the RDBMS software, or the relational database itself...
package for thousands of dollars per site, apparently never really understood the idea of mass marketing shrinkware and was unable to break the monopoly held by Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a proprietary commercial spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It features calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables, and a macro programming language called Visual Basic for Applications...
even though Wingz was technically superior and easier to use. Informix eventually gave up on the desktop market and reverted solely to database sales in the mid-1990s. Claris
Claris
Claris was a computer software developer formed as a spin-off from Apple Computer in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several programs that were owned by Apple, notably MacWrite and MacPaint, in order to separate Apple's application software activities from its hardware and...
also sold an extensively cleaned up version as Claris Resolve
Claris Resolve
Claris Resolve was a spreadsheet software program for the Apple Macintosh. It was released by Claris in 1991 and sold until 1994.In an effort to flesh out their software suite, in the early 90's Claris wanted to introduce a spreadsheet application, and decided to buy an existing one...
in 1991, but it was far too late to market to have any effect.
History
Wingz was originally written solely for the Macintosh by Innovative Software in Lenexa, KS (publishers of the SmartWare Suite on the PC) and was ready for release in late 1988. Informix was looking to break into the desktop software market with products that could link to their back-end databases, and Wingz seemed like a good fit. They purchased the product and released it largely as-is in early 1989. The release was built up by extensive promotion on the part of Informix, including giving away a then-unprecedented array of "convention swag," including high quality Wingz "letter jackets."Features
The most obvious feature, and the easiest to "checkbox review", was the size of the spreadsheets Wingz could process. Excel's maximum size was 256 columns by 16384 rows, while Wingz could handle spreadsheets up to 32768 in both directions. At the time spreadsheets were still being compared primarily on this feature. A less-obvious feature was that Wingz allowed simple in-cell editing, whereas Excel forced you to use a separate data-entry bar.Another clear difference between Wingz and Excel was Wingz' powerful graphing system, which allowed the resulting graphs to be placed directly in the spreadsheets. At the time Excel offered an anemic variety of 2D graphs, and they could only be displayed in a separate view. Additionally Wingz made it easy to make the graphs and modify them, allowing you to see your changes in real-time directly in the spreadsheet where the changes were being made. At the time it was an "obvious" feature, but one that no other program had managed to make work correctly.
A more hidden feature was HyperScript, a macro-programming language deliberately modelled on HyperCard
HyperCard
HyperCard is an application program created by Bill Atkinson for Apple Computer, Inc. that was among the first successful hypermedia systems before the World Wide Web. It combines database capabilities with a graphical, flexible, user-modifiable interface. HyperCard also features HyperTalk, written...
's HyperTalk
HyperTalk
HyperTalk is a high-level, procedural programming language created in 1987 by Dan Winkler and used in conjunction with Apple Computer's HyperCard hypermedia program by Bill Atkinson. The main target audience of HyperTalk was beginning programmers, hence HyperTalk programmers were usually called...
. HyperScript allowed even new users to write fairly powerful macros, which could include user-interface features such as buttons and dialog boxes. HyperScript 1.0 was missing some rather obvious features. For instance it could not open another spreadsheet, although it could refer to them if the user opened it for them.
A less hidden "feature" was that the program shipped with a number of bugs, which tainted the release. It also lacked a number of mathematical functions that Excel handled internally, and had no direct importer/exporter for Excel files.
Microsoft responded to the release of Wingz, and others such as Ashton-Tate
Ashton-Tate
Ashton-Tate was a US based software company best known for developing the popular dBASE database application. Ashton-Tate grew from a small garage-based company to become a multinational corporation...
's Full Impact
Full Impact
Full Impact was a spreadsheet program for the Apple Macintosh computer released by Ashton-Tate in the late 1980s. Full Impact was known for excellent graphing and visual display, far better than contemporary versions of Microsoft Excel...
and the Mac version of Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3
Lotus 1-2-3 is a spreadsheet program from Lotus Software . It was the IBM PC's first "killer application"; its huge popularity in the mid-1980s contributed significantly to the success of the IBM PC in the corporate environment.-Beginnings:...
that came out about the same time, by starting an extensive upgrade to Excel. They were soon showing it around claiming it would have all the features of Wingz — in-sheet graphics, large spreadsheets, etc. When it was finally released it was true many of these features were supported, but it was not considered user-friendly.
It was only a short period of time before a Wingz 1.1 release fixed many of these issues, but it was long enough that the product was never able to regain its momentum. It also seemed that Informix never really understood how to market the product, and it is likely 'Not Invented Here
Not Invented Here
Not invented here is a term used to describe persistent social, corporate, or institutional culture that avoids using or buying already existing products, research, standards, or knowledge because of their external origins. It is normally used in a pejorative sense, and may be considered an...
' played a major part in the problems as well — the purchase of Wingz and Smartware prompted Roger Sippl, one of the founders of Informix, to leave the company.
Shortly after Sippl left, Phil White, the new CEO of Informix, announced that Informix would no longer be competing in the desktop application space. Joe Erickson, the lead developer of the Smart Spreadsheet, Wingz, Formula One VBX, Formula One ActiveX, Formula One for Java and SpreadsheetGear for .NET, left shortly after that.
Future releases focused on bringing the product to new platforms as their GUI's matured, and adding functionality to HyperScript to allow it to directly interact with databases. Soon it was being marketed primarily as a data access tool, and eventually the name Wingz was dropped and the product became HyperScript Tools. After several years of ignoring it further, it was sold off to Investment Intelligence Systems in the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. At some unknown point Wingz was bought by a company in San Jose, CA called PDF Solutions
PDF Solutions
PDF Solutions is a developer for process-design integration technologies for integrated circuits . They have especially specialized in deep sub-micrometre designs. Their software and services are intended for semiconductor companies that want to improve their manufacturing process and make their...
which now uses Wingz as a private base for their DataPOWER Semiconductor yield management
Yield management
Revenue management is the process of understanding, anticipating and influencing consumer behavior in order to maximize yield or profits from a fixed, perishable resource...
software packages.
Claris
Claris
Claris was a computer software developer formed as a spin-off from Apple Computer in 1987. It was given the source code and copyrights to several programs that were owned by Apple, notably MacWrite and MacPaint, in order to separate Apple's application software activities from its hardware and...
, Apple Computer
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation that designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad...
's onetime software arm, licensed Wingz in the early 1990s after Informix lost interest in the Mac market. They updated it slightly with the addition of the Claris-standard UI (toolbars, color palettes, etc.) and released it as Resolve in 1991. By this time Excel was entrenched, and sales of Resolve were tiny. Claris never released a Resolve-MacWrite
MacWrite
MacWrite was a word processor application released along with the first Apple Macintosh systems in 1984. It was the first such program that was widely available to the public to offer WYSIWYG operation, with multiple fonts and styles...
-Claris Impact
Claris Impact
Claris Impact was a presentation and chart software program made for the Apple Macintosh computer developed by Claris....
bundle, and so were unable to gain a foothold in the high-end market now dominated by Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
. They eventually cancelled development in 1993, ending sales in 1994.