Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!brunix!iris.brown.edu!jhc
From: jhc@iris.brown.edu (James H. Coombs)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Information wanted on Db Vista
Message-ID: <18389@brunix.UUCP>
Date: 19 Oct 89 18:34:01 GMT
Sender: news@brunix.UUCP
Distribution: usa
Organization: IRIS
Lines: 43
References:<1989Oct11.141207.18348@kadsma.uucp> <17731@brunix.UUCP> <456@icdi10.UUCP>

In article <456@icdi10.UUCP> fr@icdi10.UUCP (Fred Rump from home) writes:
> I believe you're comparing apples and oranges here.
> First of all I would presume that Bill Fuller is obtaining the db_VISTA 
> package not db_Files and Retrieve. Both are rather elementary products not 
> worthy of serious development but rather a quick and dirty one. No wonder 
> you sent them back. 

Ok, so what does db_Vista offer?

> A C-Tree access mechanism is NOT a data base: VISTA is - both network and 
> relational.

What makes db_Vista a relational data base?  What does c-tree lack?

> In its price range

Which is what?  Someone sent me mail asking about the price of c-tree.
I see that Programmer's Connection is advertising it for $315 (includes
source).  I can't find a price on db_Vista.  As I recall, it was something
like $2500 for db_Vista and another $2500 for db_Query.  There is
also db_Revise.

> In its price range, with source code, it is the one tool that 
> permits full compatibility with just about any hardware out there. There 
> is no need to wait for features you desperately need or bugs you need fixed
> which can put the developer into a serious quandary when product has to be 
> delivered.

So, db_Vista has record-level locking? not just a suggested method for 
application developers to implement their own record locking?  It has variable
length records?  It has (via db_Query) a full SQL that does not require one to 
declare access paths first and that optimizes queries?

> Fred Rump

Do you work for Raima, Fred?

--Jim

Dr. James H. Coombs
Senior Software Engineer, Research
Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship
Box 1952, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912