Data Based Advisor articles from January 1993

Data Based Advisor archives from January 1993

RAD makes quick work of creating Clipper apps. (Paul D. Sheriff and Associates' Clipper application generator) (Test Drives)
January 1, 1993... Application generators provide several advantages to developers and users. They can help experienced system developers respond more quickly to demands by shortening the traditional design/code/test cycle of software development. Application...

The Relational Model for Database Management: Version 2.
January 1, 1993... Let's face it, no one knows relational like Codd and Date. As groundbreaking theorists, their writing carries real clout in the field. This book describes the 300 features of the relational model, and explains key relational terminology and...

An Introduction to Database Systems, Volume 1.
January 1, 1993... If you've ever wanted to put yourself through a graduate level course in database management, start here. Date offers an authoritative and comprehensive text on databases, with particular emphasis on the relational model. Read this book before...

SQL and Relational Basics.
January 1, 1993... Excellent short coverage of relational database principles and evaluation criteria for choosing a DBMS. SQL and Relational Basics uses SQL to illustrate relational operations, and contrasts the relational approach to non-relational PC databases...

Decline and Fall of the American Programmer.
January 1, 1993... If you read no other computer book this fall, read Decline and Fall of the American Programmer. If you're a programmer, you'll be alarmed by the drop in programming quality and productivity. You'll also find out what your employer is doing...

The Mythical Man-Month: Essays of Software Engineering.
January 1, 1993... Based on a lifetime of experience developing major software systems, this collection of essays explores management techniques as they apply to software development. Brooks' observations on the difficulties of project estimating and the...

Productivity Sand Traps & Tar Pits.
January 1, 1993... Here's a collection of management information system war stories, bundled together like a modern fables of La Fontaine--minus the verse. Walsh draws on some 30 years of experience in the trenches, including 23 years at CBS Records. While...

Designing User Interfaces.
January 1, 1993... While masquerading as a general book on interface design, Powell's book turns out to be a style guide for database application development. Using FoxPro to illustrate general principles of interface design, the book offers a broad set of...

Exploring Requirements: Quality Before Design.
January 1, 1993... One of the most entertaining professional books on the market, Exploring Requirements is full of real-life examples of how poor requirements analysis can haunt a project, along with hints on how to improve your analysis skills. The insights...

"Who am I? Why am I here...?"
January 1, 1993... "Who am I...? Why am I Here...?" Remember these questions? Admiral Stockdale made them famous in the October 1992 vice presidential debate. They were disarming, even humorous. But, beyond the initial surprise, they represent deeper...

Feedback. (Letter to the Editor)
January 1, 1993... The Way of the World I wanted to commend you on an excellent November 1992 issue, in particular, your feature, "Master Your Front Ends." With the mushrooming interest in GUI SQL front-end development products, I'm sure this issue will...

Softwatch.
January 1, 1993... [TABULAR DATA OMITTED]

Calendar of events.
January 1, 1993... * NetWorld '93--The latest in networking news and products. January 12-14, Boston, MA. Contact conference planners at 800-829-3976 or 201-346-1400. * Paradox Developers Conference--A forum for high-level Paradox developers to discuss...

Database confidential. (Column)
January 1, 1993... Hey, I don't really care that Borland's a bit late with that new version of Paradox for Windows. Sheesh, they're only trying to get it right--right? That's why this guy was aghast to hear about a secret petition sent to the Kingdom Kahn from...

Test your system with a "conference room pilot". (Memo to Management) (Column)
January 1, 1993... Test Your System with a "Conference Room Pilot" Most project leaders cringe when asked, "When can we go live?" This is because failed implementations can be very costly, if not fatal to the future of one's business. Many organizations...

Choosing the right add-ons for Visual Basic. (includes list of Visual Basic for Windows add-on software) (Buyers Guide)
January 1, 1993... The standard edition of Visual Basic for Windows (VB) provides a tremendous amount of functionality right out of the box. Nearly everything you need to create a real Windows application is included. What's missing from VB are robust database...

Set up remote data entry. (includes related articles on hardware for radio frequency systems, dumb terminals versus programmed terminals, low-tech uses of radio frequency technology and how radio frequency computing works) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... Do you need to set up a system with wireless data entry? Are your clients asking for real-time inventory tracking? Have you developed applications that could benefit from instantaneous communication with remote hand-held terminals? Are you...

How we add faxing to our applications. (includes related articles on mail order phone sales and reports distribution system case studies and a listing of faxing products) (Buyers Guide)
January 1, 1993... The integration of computer-based faxing into applications has recently become one of the hottest-selling features of the systems we develop. These applications provide a link between the information systems that run a business' operations and...

Managing your first downsizing project.
January 1, 1993... Downsizing projects may be an entirely different experience for PC developers who've been writing for small business clients, or larger clients who're computerizing. Corporate downsizing projects require more resources than just your skill as...

Access Basic: a language primer. (Microsoft Corp.'s database management system) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... Microsoft Access Microsoft Corp. One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 206-882-8080, fax 206-936-7329 Price: $99 Remember when you first discovered you could write a macro in 1-2-3 or Word? You could use all the power of the...

Get to your data via queries. (using Microsoft Corp.'s Access database management system) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... Nowhere does the adage "knowledge is power" apply more keenly than in database management. What good is the most sophisticated data storage system if data can't be efficiently retrieved and manipulated to produce meaningful results? Empowered...

Xbase standards effort lurches ahead.
January 1, 1993... PASADENA, CA -- Standards are useful things. Standards ensure light bulbs fit almost any socket. And standards help you make buying decisions and let vendors pinpoint minimal requirements for the products they manufacture. Now a...

Understanding database gateways. (includes related article on gateway vendors)
January 1, 1993... With the increased drive in the database community towards sharing data between databases, 1993 may become the Year of the Database Gateway. (I know, you've heard that before..) Few subjects in the database world invoke as many war stories as...

Computer Associates meets its market. (TechniCon conference for Clipper developers)
January 1, 1993... The sky didn't fall. In early November, Computer Associates held its first TechniCon, a conference for Clipper developers, in New York City. And when it was all said and shown, participants from both sides appeared to leave satisfied. If...

And the walls came tumbling down. (Computer Associates' marketing of Clipper database application development environment)
January 1, 1993... Since Clipper's beginnings as a compiler for dBASE, Nantucket has had a hard time getting large corporations to accept a tool from a small, primarily single-product company. Nantucket faced many hurdles of opposition. One of the largest hurdles...

Dataline.
January 1, 1993... LAS VEGAS--A consortium of major vendors gathered on the first morning of Comdex to announce the latest database connectivity scheme. The Integrated Database Application Programming Interface, or IDAPI, proposes an implementation of the SQL...

There's no place like home. (Editorial)
January 1, 1993... In a field where change is normal, it's still possible to get our heads spinning. A five week period from late October through mid-November did just that. I also logged a slew of "frequent-flyer" miles getting to the venues of change. ...

Heigh-ho, SilverWare! (SilverWare Inc.'s SilverFox Library SPCS 4 for FoxPro 2, SilverClip Library SPCS for CA-Clipper 5, SilverComm C Async Library SPCS 4 program libraries) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... SilverWare, Inc. released the newest upgrades to their Silver line: SilverFox Library SPCS 4 for FoxPro 2, SilverClip Library SPCS for CA-Clipper 5, SilverComm C Async Library SPCS 4. All updates come with new documentation and complete C and...

A developer bearing GIFs. (Genus Microprogramming's GIF Toolkit and GX Printer program development software) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... Genus Microprogramming has shipped two new products, The GIF Toolkit and GX Printer. The GIF Toolkit supports the latest GIF89a specs and allows developers to incorporate graphics into programs using GIF images, and includes over 100 routines...

What to do with your spare time. (SuperTime Inc.'s SuperTime 1.2 scheduling software) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... SuperTime, Inc. has updated SuperTime 1.2, scheduling software that now has lower conventional memory requirements, improved use of extended memory, a multilingual interface, a revised contact directory with a new front-end display, and a...

SofDesign's new back-up tool. (SofDesign International's ProVisionBackup program development software) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... SofDesign International announced ProVision:Backup, a program that lets C, Clipper, and Visual Basic/DOS programmers add back-up and restore capabilities to applications. The company says using ProVision:Backup is as easy as making one function...

The ever-expanding IGC. (IGC's VMMail and VMMenu electronic menuing add-on tools) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... IGC expands its line with VMMail and VMMenu, e-mail and menuing add-on tools for use with VM/386, a multi-tasking operating system for DOS applications. VMMail allows users to send and receive e-mail or entire files across a workgroup...

Stacker for DOS and Windows. (Stac Electronics' Stacker 3.0 file management software) (Brief Article) (Product Announcement)
January 1, 1993... Stacker, from Stac Electronics, is available for Windows and DOS. Version 3.0has enhanced disk doubling capabilities, increased performance, data security, and new tools that enables users to monitor and tune system compression and performance....

Develop and display your help messages in dBASE IV. (dBASE Developer column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... This is our third month dealing with help development, and we're not going to finish up even now! I know that it seems to be taking a long time to get where we're going. Remember, however, that it's necessary to deal with issues relating to...

Radio buttons from the GET go. (Hardcore Clipper column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... You've seen radio buttons at work in Microsoft Windows, Presentation Manager, or Macintosh applications. Radio buttons are a user interface control that allow users to select from a list of mutually exclusive choices. They're called radio...

Work with locked multi-user files in Paradox 4.0. (includes related article on dynamic arrays) (Paradox Programmer column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... If you're working with Paradox 4.0, you've probably been impressed by its remarkable speed. Many of the speed improvements are automatic. Queries, for example, simply run faster; you don't have to redesign them. Some of the other benefits,...

Gain efficiency and productivity through re-usable code. (FoxPro Developer column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... One way for developers to increase the productivity and quality of new and existing development efforts is to write reusable code. Re-usable code is any code module that doesn't make any assumptions about its environment. It takes care of...

How to use FoxPro's API. (application programming interface) (C/C++ Developer column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... No matter how powerful FoxPro is as a development language and database manager, it still has trouble executing certain types of applications. Fortunately, with the advent of FoxPro 2.0, Fox Software (now Microsoft) introduced an application...

More than 100,000 served. (Data Based Advisor Forum on CompuServe)
January 1, 1993... More than 100,000 have been served without the loss of a single steer. I'm not talking hamburgers; I'm referring to CompuServe messages. As of this writing, Data Based Advisor Forum has reached 97,800 messages. By the time you read this, the...

Flexible complexity: FoxPro's printer drivers, part 2. (includes related article on distributing printer drivers with applications) (FoxPro Basics column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... As we saw last time, the FoxPro printer driver system is a brave new world of system variables, a special system array, dialogs, and procedures that are called from "hooks" in FoxPro at various points during output. Before we began to examine...

Memo fields - Clipper 5 style. (Clipper Basics column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... Memo fields have historically been viewed as the great panacea of the Xbase standard. However, their renown inefficient file organization handling in many dialects, including Clipper, has caused many developers to look the other way. Too few...

Moving Paradox 3.5 applications to Paradox 4.0. (Paradox Basics column) (Tutorial)
January 1, 1993... One of the most common questions asked by PAL programmers is how to move working Paradox 3.5 PAL applications to Paradox 4.0 without making substantial code changes. Paradox 4.0 presents a host of new PAL commands, and a new locking mechanism....