Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcsun!ukc!axion!tsa!domo From: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.apps Subject: Re: UNIX-MAC DB Message-ID: <1990Sep17.095900.24253@tsa.co.uk> Date: 17 Sep 90 09:59:00 GMT References: <32@genco.uucp> Reply-To: domo@tsa.co.uk (Dominic Dunlop) Distribution: comp Organization: The Standard Answer Ltd. Lines: 45 In article <32@genco.uucp> rad@genco. (Bob Daniel) writes: > In article suran@nff.ncl.omron.co.jp (Suran de SILVA) writes: > >We are trying to find a client-server database to run on both > >Unix and Mac. > > Look into Oracle. Oracle on Mac can tie into a UNIX server that is running > the database engine. Yes, but... I deinstalled the 1.0 Oracle front end from my Mac some time back, as it was so clunky, and because Oracle failed to come through with the promised implementation of Oracle for A/UX (Apple's UNIX implementation), citing ``operating system bugs''. (I'd have given more creedence to ``minimal market penetration'': A/UX, while old fashioned, seems solid enough to me, but I've yet to see any evidence that significant numbers of Apple users are running it, or that steps are being taken to make its name spring to prospective purchasers' minds.) I belive that Oracle has either been delivered of, or is heavily pregnant with, version 1.1. Hopefully, this will be to version 1.0 as dBASE IV 1.1 is reputed to be to dBASE IV 1.0. (i.e. Much better, and what they should have come up with in the first place.) Oracle has also annouced that, come spring 1991 or so, there will be a native Mac version of the database server (Mac IIfx with 8M RAM recommended!). This might give the current preferred native Mac database managers -- Omnis 5, 4th Dimension and Double Helix -- something to think about. (Of these, Omnis 5 is also available for MS-DOS. None, to my knowledge, is available for UNIX, or can be neatly integrated with UNIX-hosted servers from other suppliers.) Mentioning dBASE reminds me that FoxBASE is available for PCs, Macs, and a number of UNIX platforms. It's a good product, provided that you don't have any religious attachment to SQL. (I do.) Another respondent has mentioned Wingz. Well, yes: it's available on the Mac and on (a currently small number of) UNIX platforms. (A Windows 3 version for MS-DOS has just hit the streets, too.) But no: it's not a database manager, but a spreadsheet package -- albeit one dripping with features, some of which are applicable to flat-file database applications. As such, it's probably unsuitable for large or complex databases. There has been serious talk of Wingz as a front end to servers running ``traditional'' SQL-based, UNIX-hosted software from Informix -- or, indeed, from other suppliers. You might want to ask your local Informix sales office how close these are to delivery. -- Dominic Dunlop