Data Based Advisor articles from August 1991

Data Based Advisor archives from August 1991

Dataline.
August 1, 1991... SCOTTS VALLEY, CA-Hey kids! Philippe Kahn is anxious to visit your living room. You and King Kahn can go eye-to-eye on such topical topics as object orientation-almost. You'll see his eyes, but he won't see yours. To stare him down, get a copy...

Finding the right side of the road. (Editor on the Go) (editorial)
August 1, 1991... I may never get home! From Comdex in warm Atlanta I went directly to Database World in hot Washington, D.C. Yes, I was in Washington the same week school kids were sent home early due to a record-setting heat wave! And I'm trudging around in a...

Migration... (President's Letter) (column)
August 1, 1991... 6 Birds do it. Bees do it. Even computers and magazines do it. Migrate that is. Next month, Data Based Advisor will launch a monthly section in the magazine called Client/Server Advisor. This represents a publishing migration of sorts-one...

Feedback. (letter to the editor)
August 1, 1991... Send your Feedback' letter to Data Based Advisor, "Feedback," 4010 Morena Blvd., Suite 200, San Diego, Calif. 92117. If your letter includes code, please send it on disk. Letters will be edited for brevity. * A Kolades I really enjoy...

Oracle Corp. (Oracle for Windows DDE/ToolBook Interface) (product announcement)
August 1, 1991... Oracle Corp. released Oracle for Windows DDE/ToolBook Interface which lets users and developers query, update, graph, and report information stored in Oracle Servers from Windows apps supporting Microsoft's Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE). DDE...

Quadbase Systems Inc. (Quadbase-SQL for Windows) (product announcement)
August 1, 1991... Quadbase Systems, inc. released a library for Microsoft's Visual Basic. Visual Basic programmers will be able to use Quadbase-SQL for Windows, their Dynamic Link Library (DLL), to build database applications using ANSI level 2 SOL. Features...

Solutions Systems. (Sourcerer's Apprentice for Sun OS UNIX) (product announcement)
August 1, 1991... Solution Systems announced Sourcerer's Apprentice (SA) for Sun OS UNIX. SA is a version control system (see the review in June's Fast Takes). SA lets developers track changes to UNIX object files, executable files and binary data files. The...

Microrim Inc. (R:BASE 3.1 for OS/2) (product announcement)
August 1, 1991... Microrim, Inc. released R:BASE 3.1 for OS/2. To migrate DOS apps over to OS/2, install the OS/2 version and copy your DOS application files and data. Features include Dynamic Data Integration which allows network users to access dBASE III PLUS...

Eschewing object-oriented obfuscation. (Object-Oriented Technology: A Manager's Guide)
August 1, 1991... If you're even thinking about including object-oriented anything in your work or casual conversation, Object-Oriented Technology: A Manager's Guide, by David A. Taylor, PhD, is required reading. As you may have gathered from the title, it's...

A change in view. (R:BASE Tip) (tutorial)
August 1, 1991... To change a view definition, you can edit any of the columns in the SYSVIEWS table. Just don't change the SELECT command Lest you think that all wisdom flows from Microrim, here's one that the staff was wrong on. When I first got R:BASE...

Client/server FYI. (Client/Server Advisor)
August 1, 1991... * Gupta Technologies, inc. should be shipping its new Windows data access tool, Quest, sometime this month ($495). With Quest and appropriate gateway software, users can access and manipulate live data in leading SQL databases as well as DBF...

Database confidential.
August 1, 1991... I keep hearing nasty rumors that some Windows development firms-large ones-are "borrowing" code from other folks' Windows products. Since applications are supposed to look and feel the same, perhaps it seems appropriate, and undetectable. Don't...

10 steps to better programming.
August 1, 1991... Re-evaluating your approach to programming can help improve your skills. Here's a refresher course... Are your programming skills up to snuff? Do you do more than program? In large, corporate environments with MIS departments, application...

Complying with CUA. (common user access)(Custom Micro Concepts Inc.'s CUAccess) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... You've probably noticed that a number of commercial software packages greet you with a familiar-looking File Edit" menu when you first load them. Examples include Microsoft's "Quick" compilers, CompuServe Information Manager, and just about...

Flexing your SQL muscle. (structured query language)(Data Access Corp.'s FlexQL) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... It looks like Structured Query Language or SQL is here to stay, so you might as well add "Learn SQL" to your "To Do" list. SQL probably popping up in your professional life-in conversations, magazines, and the database products you use. If...

The source code shell game. (BPMA's MODEX-PLUS) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... If you're a software developer or programmer, I bet you've wished for a customizable program for comparing versions of your source code. If you have (or if the idea appeals to you), MODEX-PLUS dbf is a program that can compare text files and...

Building charts for Superbase apps. (Pinnacle Publishing Inc.'s Chart Builder) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... Superbase 2 and 4 are two of the few database managers currently running under Windows 3.0. But what's a database without charts and graphs to go with the reports? Chart Builder, from Pinnacle Publishing, is a Superbase add-on that lets you...

ErrorProc essentials. (Paradox Programmer) (tutorial)
August 1, 1991... Problem: How to trap for and work out al unexpected run errors in your Paradox applications. Solution: Use the error procedure to deal with those unexpected problems in a friendly way.. Paradox's "error procedure," or "errorproc," is...

In search of software. (The VAR Report) (column)
August 1, 1991... 8 To supplement your consulting portfolio, consider an alternative to custom software development: Software Searches. The turn-around time is usually short, and your research will teach you a lot about software... Many...

When you need speed. (benchmark tests of Ashton-Tate's dBASE IV 1.1, Borland International Inc.'s Paradox 3.5 and Fox Software Inc.'s FoxPro 2.0)(includes related articles on how tests are performed, objectiveness of testing, comparison of the products' Structured Query Language implementations, what vendors think of benchmark testing, test data structures and a test that was dropped) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... 6 The success of some applications depends on the user interface, others on the interactive query capabilities of the database management system, connectivity to remote databases, or programmer productivity, and still others on the...

Picking the ideal database development tool. (Roundtable)(members of the Information Systems Integration group of the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Institutional Data Systems Section) (panel discussion)
August 1, 1991... The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is part of the California Institute of Technology and manages unmanned space flight for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They compose, modestly speaking, a hotbed of leading-edge technology....

How JPL built the near-perfect app. (Case Study)(California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Space Simulator System)
August 1, 1991... The key to this application development process was the close proximity with which developer and end-user worked... NASA requires every wing-nut it sends into space to undergo a grueling set of tests before being launched. After all,...

The big productivity picture. (Opinions)
August 1, 1991... There are a lot of discussions about productivity tools for programmers and developers here in Data Based Advisor, on the DBADVISOR Forum on CompuServe, and elsewhere. In a recent opinion column, for example, R. Russell Freeland discussed...

Results matter. (Opinions)(Fox Software Inc.'s FoxPro 2.0)
August 1, 1991... As you may know, I have been an unabashed champion of Clipper for several years. What you probably don't know is that I've also been a beta tester for almost every XBase product on the market DBASE IV, Force, FoxPro, FoxPro/Mac, etc.)....

Can X-Base work under Windows? (genSoft Development Corp.'s dBFast for Windows 1.55)(includes related article on user response to the product) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... genSoft's dBFast for Windows provides most of what you'd want in an X-Base complier for Windows The Microsoft Windows 3.0 database market is still wide open. Several companies are moving fast to capture a portion of the market before...

Long live the king. (Opinions)(user needs in the X-Base data base management system market)
August 1, 1991... I received an interesting letter from Mr. Cavan F.E. Adolphe of Bonsall, Calif., regarding "A Kinder Gentler 800-Pound Gorilla" from the May issue. To refresh your memory, I said that Ashton-Tate and some of the other big players in the X-Base...

Front-end application development tools come of age. (includes related articles on client/server architecture and key issues to consider when choosing a front end)
August 1, 1991... It's taken about two years, but now you're likely to be overwhelmed rather than underwhelmed by your choices for developing client/server applications. Find out which tools developers are using-and why. You may have already developed your...

Clipper developers turn to ObjectView. (Matesys Corp.) (Software Review) (evaluation)
August 1, 1991... Tools optimized for client/server application development have been slow to emerge. Find out why ex-Clipper developers turned to Matesys' ObjectView. At SQLSoft, we've spent the last few years as a Clipper shop developing custom...

Getting started with DLLs. (dynamic link libraries) (tutorial)
August 1, 1991... If You have users who want Windows ends, take a look at tooks that DYnamic Link Libraries (DLLs). DLLs are the PC developers, equivalent of "open systems," and can extend the functionality of any package's base function call library. We'll...

Solving the right problems. (Software Engineering)
August 1, 1991... When called upon to build systems for solving problems, ask yourself this question: Are the right problems being solved? If you apply this to new projects, you'll more accurately approximate what users really want... As software engineers,...

Rites of passage: Clipper's Extend System. (tutorial)
August 1, 1991... Clipper 5.0's Extend System lets you add C and assembly functions to your applications. it works by providing a common method of passing parameters between different programming environments. To get the full power from Clipper, you should...

Information overload. (helpful utilities for managing CompuServe messages) (tutorial)
August 1, 1991... Is it possible to know too much? Looking at how quickly my hard drive fills up, it seems like it is. Where does all of the information come from? Lately, more and more of it seems to come from CompuServe. Keeping old, tattered threads?...