Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!hacgate!ashtate!dbase!awd
From: awd@dbase.A-T.COM (Alastair Dallas)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Need a DOS database that can do the following:
Summary: dBASE IV commercial
Message-ID: <1991Jan22.164419.9484@dbase.A-T.COM>
Date: 22 Jan 91 16:44:19 GMT
References: <81832@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Organization: Ashton-Tate, Inc.
Lines: 108

In article <81832@unix.cis.pitt.edu>, ejost@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Ernest J. Obusek) writes:
> I have an application I've been maintaining for several years that I'd like
> to rewrite in some kind of database system language.

I work for Ashton-Tate and I'm going to suggest dBASE IV.  Press 'n' now
if this offends you :-).

> Here's what the program I'm to write has to do.  Perhaps you can tell me if
> there is a database system that can handle the job.
> 
> Databases with up to 500 fields per record and 100,000 records.

100,000 records is easy; dBASE IV is limited to 255 fields, however.

> Ability to have record names up to 100 characters in length.

Not clear what you mean here: Records in dBASE IV are referenced by 
number (1 to 2 billion).  Index keys for each record can be 100 characters.

> Ability to read one field out of 500 for each of 100,000 records in under
> 15 seconds.

That means reading 100,000 records to dBASE IV, which my gut feel tells
me will take longer than 15 seconds, particularly on an AT.

> Ability to work with up to 10 open databases simultaneously.

You got it.  (Where databases <==> tables.)

> Some form of data integrity protection.
> Ability to unwind operations to a previously known "good" point.

dBASE IV's integrity protection is very powerful and almost completely
manual.  You can write all kinds of referential integrity into your
application program, and we support transaction logging and rollback
as well as file and record locking automatically.

> Menu, window, mouse based user interface, with context-sensitive help.

Mouse support in dBASE IV is third-party at the moment, but the menu and
window support is there.  You can write as fancy a help system as you'd
like using the dBASE IV language.

> Ability to generate completely customized reports.  I need to be able to
> include DOS graphics characters (boxes, lines) in the output.

No problem.

> Ability to do simple statistics (means, standard deviations).

Yes, sir.

> Ability to generate on screen pie and bar charts.

Third-party at this point.  Or, at least, external.  Ashton-Tate sells 
a product called Applause which I'm not terribly familiar with.

> Ability to output reports and charts to HP DeskJet and LaserJet printers.
> Ability to use multiple fonts with printed reports.

dBASE IV supports dozens if not hundreds of printers, including these two.

> Some type of macro capability.

Built-in.

> And most of all, good performance on a 640K, 12 Mhz AT.  However, if 
> necessay, EMS is Ok.

Well...  You have to define "good," of course, but ten active 100,000
record files are going to stress any system.  Your app will be more
responsive on a 386/25.  dBASE IV takes advantage of any EMS/XMS you have.

> Is there anything for any price that can do all of this? 

dBASE IV is $795.  It doesn't do all that you've asked for, but it's
designed to be everything-to-everyone so it comes pretty close.

> One more thing, how does working in a database language compare to working
> with programming languages like C or M2?

The dBASE IV programming language is very similar to BASIC in terms of
command verb orientation and built-in and user-defined functions.  It
is similar to lisp, however, in its support for late-binding of its
variables--there is no distinction made between scalars and database
fields and therefore variables are dynamically typed.  Control structures
are more like Pascal--there's no unconditional branching, for example.
And, of course, there are powerful non-procedural commands which act
on whole tables or horizontal and/or vertical subsets of tables.  It
is a pseudo-compiled interpretive environment with a built-in debugger,
a situation which I find much easier to develop code in, personally.

> Well, if you've read this far, I thank you!  If you have any advice, I 
> thank you even more!
> 
> Ernest Obusek

I hope no one minds the commercial for dBASE IV.  There are other
products which do some of what we do, so you can consider this an
overview of the marketplace.  But I make no bones about supporting
the product I've been working on for the last seven years.

/alastair/


Disclaimer> I do not speak for Ashton-Tate in any way, and this is
not an offer to sell you the product described, and any other legalistic
disclaimer-type stuff I can think of...