Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!timbuk!cs.umn.edu!quest!orbit!pnet51!johnston
From: johnston@pnet51.orb.mn.org (Jon Johnston)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.misc
Subject: Re: State-of-the-art platforms
Message-ID: <4041@orbit.cts.com>
Date: 7 Feb 91 04:45:06 GMT
Sender: news@orbit.cts.com
Organization: People-Net [pnet51], Minneapolis, MN.
Lines: 39


     Well, first of all with a Macintosh you won't run into the device
driver/memory problem that you did with a DOS machine. Chances are, if you
choose something with a Unix base, it's going to be expensive, and also hard
to configure. 

     I would suggest a Macintosh, whatever Mac, the faster the better
(obviously... an Fx, if you want), and using a 4th Dimension application.
There are plent of applications avaiable in 4D for doing the office
automation, and the compiler recently released by 4D will help with speed
 
    You can write externals for 4th Dimension, so you could possibly tie them
to the video disc, the CD-ROM, communications, etc. Due to the release of the
new packages such as 4D Write, 4D Calc, you can do a lot of processing with
4D, but tie it all back into the database. 
 
    You could probably do a lot of this with Hypercard and XCMDs, also, a lot
of ties to video discs and such already exist, there are database add-ons
available (Hyper-Hit, although I confess I've never used this and don't know
how well it works.) 
  
   The choice of the two depends upon whether or not you'd like to base
everything in a database, or in Hypercard.
 
   Well, that's my two cents.......... 

good luck. let us know what you choose. 

jon johnston

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