Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!lethe!yunexus!ists!helios.physics.utoronto.ca!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!uunet!world!ksr!dgg From: dgg@ksr.com (David Grubbs) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.applications Subject: Relational databases and "Acquisition" Message-ID: Date: 19 Jan 91 19:55:20 GMT Sender: news@ksr.com Organization: Kendall Square Research, Waltham, MA Lines: 37 A couple years ago I let my desire for a relational database for my Amiga get the better of me. After canvassing the various computers stores, I discovered that you could purchase Oracle or Informix for the MS-DOS machines for about $500, but Unix versions were outlandishly expensive ($20K range) and Amiga implementations were non-existent. So I purchased (for $300) a thing called "Acquisition". The store owner (someone I had thought to be reliable for a year or so) and the cover blurbs assured me that it would more than cover my data storage and retrieval needs. I am still amazed at how far from correct they were. I produced a 10-page list of the bugs and misfeatures (everything from system crashes to assuming that a person's name began with a capital letter, followed only by lower case letters -- MacDougal and O'Brien lost big), sent the creators (an English company named "Taurus") a nasty note and found the local distributor ("Haifex"), who gave me a sob story along the lines of, "Those losers? We got screwed -- they won't support it." The only answer I got from the people who wrote Acquisition was the snottiest letter I have ever heard of, let alone received. It concluded that I was obviously not 'superior' enough to be a customer of theirs and I should take my business elsewhere. They didn't offer to return my money. It's amazing they ever made any. I threw the manual in the trash can and recycled the disk. Anyway, I'd like to know two things: 1. Despite reading a half-dozen Amiga-oriented magazines per month, I still don't see any kind of professional relational database for the Amiga. This group (and its predecessors) occasionally collect a plaintive "Where is SQL?" message, but I never see an informed response. 2. Does anyone know what the real story is with Acquisition? I still see their name occasionally. I can't believe they can stay in business with their miserable attitude and completely unusable product. -- David G. Grubbs Kendall Square Research Corp. {harvard,uunet,world}!ksr!dgg dgg@ksr.com