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From: byock@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Bill Yock)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Paradox vs. Clarion Opinions Wanted
Message-ID: <4370@ns-mx.uiowa.edu>
Date: 11 Feb 91 20:28:46 GMT
References: <1991Feb11.025108.21004@cbnewsh.att.com>
Sender: news@ns-mx.uiowa.edu
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From article <1991Feb11.025108.21004@cbnewsh.att.com>, by wcs@cbnewsh.att.com (Bill Stewart 908-949-0705 erebus.att.com!wcs):
> Has anyone used Paradox or Clarion?  How easy are they to program?
> My wife is planning to re-do the inventory system for a local
> mail-order company, and they're trying to evaluate these two products.
> 
> The system currently has non-technical users, a network of 3-4 PCs
> with a hand-built screen handler and B-trieve, and a lot of APL code
> expressing all sorts of random rules about products and manufacturers.
> A relational system with good programming capabilities seems
> like a good upgrade path.
> 
> The Paradox manual has a lot of stuff about how you can do this and that
> without having to use the programming interface - does that imply that
> programming it is difficult, or just that queries are easy?
> 

The fact that the manuals stress that you can use Paradox interactively for
most of your work instead of programmatically does not imply that programming
is difficult.  It has a very nice programming interface and debugging 
facilities.  You can quickly create your tables, forms, and reports and pull
them all together in a menu.  There is also a library of procedures called
the Data Entry Toolkit to enhance data entry forms.  A word of caution, make
sure you learn Paradox interactively before you start programming with it.  So
much of what you do programmatically relies  on the underlying ineractive 
Paradox.  For example, the QBE (Query By Example) facility alllows the user
to construct queries, without a complex command language like SQL, but also
allows you to save the query into a program.   Borland offers free tech support
for Paradox and their database forum on CompuServe is one of the most active.
Stay clear of the Personal Programmer code generator it does not produce
multi-user code.


--
Bill Yock, Weeg Computing Center, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242
byock@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu