Info Mapper revisited

Perhaps my most serious misgiving about Charles Oppenheim's article in the February '94 issue of Aslib Proceedings is that he has approached the Info Mapper software with certain prejudicial and stereotyped concepts of: 1) what Info Mapper really is, and is supposed to accomplish; 2) what data base management systems are; 3) the difference between a computer programming language, such as ‘C’ or ‘C+’ (in which Info Mapper was programmed), a generalized DBMS software package that is sold ‘off the shelf’, and in applications software package like Info Mapper; and 4) his failure to follow clear instructions in the documentation accompanying Info Mapper (especially the Project Managers Guide) — which, in turn, led to all manner of problems that could have been entirely precluded, or at least ameliorated, and for which he blames the software instead of adequate preparation, planning, and giving the client enough time to work through problems.