Of course I've no idea what Informix 4GL is like, so I may be way off base - but where applicable, code generators written in something more beautiful (Perl, anyone?
:)) might be worth considering as a way to sweep the ugliness under the rug. I assume it might be here, because "barely languages" tend to result in a
lot of repetition if you do it "properly" without shortcut hacks, basically devolving to something assembly-ish - in that metaphor, the code generator basically does a primitive compiler's job. (See disclaimer though, might be way off base for Informix 4GL.) Whether the effort is justified depends heavily on the project's dimensions.
Makeshifts last the longest.