Data Based Advisor articles from May 1991

Data Based Advisor archives from May 1991

Feedback. (letter to the editor)
May 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 Better Way In Malcolm...

Telepathy knows all. (Extrasensory Software's Telepathy) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... Don't get the wrong impression from this product's name. Telepathy does not let you control your modem or other RS-232-C device via brain waves alone. However, add Clipper and a keyboard to nominal amounts of brain power, and this fine product,...

FYI.
May 1, 1991... Here are the languages that major vendors used to write your favorite DBMSs: Borland Turbo C-Clarion (Clarion Software), Paradox 3.5 (Borland int'l) Lattice C 2.15-DataEase (DataEase Int'l) * MetaWare...

Database confidential.
May 1, 1991... If you were among the 15,000 who flocked to the Windows & OS/2 Conference in San Jose in early March only to wonder where the beef was, don't feel alone. Microsoft's asking the same thing. Hanging out behind the potted palms at the local...

AccSys for dBASE, AccSys for Paradox. (Copia International, Ltd.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * AccSys for DBASE * AccSys for Paradox Copia international, Ltd. 1964 Richton Drive Wheaton, IL 60187 (708) 682-8898 fax (708) 665-9841 List price: $395 AccSys for DBASE is a library of 100 C functions that...

Borland C++ 2.0. (Borland International Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Borland C++ 2.0 1800 Green Hills Road Scotts Valley, CA 95067 (408) 438-8400, fax (408)439-9272 List price: $495 Borland's newest language package includes both C and C++ compilers with all the tools needed to create...

C Data Manager 3.0. (Database Technologies) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C Data Manager 3.0 Database Technologies 54 University Road Brookline, MA 02146 (617) 739-3390 List price: $295 An object-oriented C runtime library for data manipulation. This library is implemented at runtime to...

C Programmer's Toolbox (3 volumes). (MMCAD Systems) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C Programmer's Toolbox (3 volumes) MMCAD Systems P.O. Box 360845 Milpitas, CA 95036 (415) 770-0858, fax (415) 770-0116 List price: $125 These utilities are designed to increase the day-to-day productivity of...

Drought. (Editor on the Go) (editorial)
May 1, 1991... It's raining! As I write this, my view of San Francisco Bay is obscured by a downpour. I'm thrilled! In California, water's a big deal. We're in the midst of the worst drought in many years. If it wasn't for reservoirs, canals, and pipelines...

Right-Hand groupware. (Futurus Corp.'s Right Hand Man) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... Groupware was one of last year's computer buzzwords. I think it means software that makes cooperative work and communication within a group easy. A groupware product then, is a network program that should include: E-mail, personal appointment...

Applications on Stage. (Software Tools Development Corp.'s Stage screen designer) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... Stage, from Software Tools Development Corp., is a two-part package. On one hand, it's a screen design tool to help you create application screens. The screen painter can record everything from validation code and associated error messages to...

ToForce gives code-conversion head start to Force. (Applied Computer Products' ToForce compiler) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... If you want to compile your X-Base programs under Sophco's Force, then ToForce, from Applied Computer Products, may give you a head start. Although Force is billed as an X-Base compiler, it won't compile "pure" X-Base code. All variables,...

Updated Pro-C speeds C development work. (Pro-C Corp's Pro-C 2.0) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... Believe it or not, Pro-C B2.0, from Pro-C Corp. will appeal to experienced C developers and those with little or no C programming background. Although there are a number of code generators currently on the market, this version offers some nifty...

Creating your financial reports. (The VAR Report)(includes related article on manual versus automated accounting systems) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... Keeping reports like the Trial Balance, Balance Sheet, P&L, Cash Requirements, and Accounts Receivable Aging at your fingertips will pay off in increased efficiency and improved management. In my March and April articles, I discussed how to...

What you may not know about adding and deleting records. (Mac Rubel's Power Tools)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... Some common X-Base commands exact a penalty. For example, DELETE won't remove a record until you PACK the database. PACK requires that you have enough space to handle a duplicate of your data file. Finally, APPEND BLANK should never be used to...

Data entry tips! (The Paradox Programmer)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... This set of undocument secrets shows you: * How WAIT beats out the Data Entry Toolkit almost every time * Why you should keep your data-entry programs in co-edit mode all the time * How to keep your tables read-only using...

BROWSE, once and for all. (Hardcore Clipper)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... Using Clipper 5.0's TBROWSE(), you can write one piece of code to handle any type of browse. Once you've created this general-purpose BROWSE routine, you simply configure the object before calling the function. This month I'll show you how...

Seeking C for database work. (The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Considered learning the C programming language? YOU'll face jultiple pitfalls: C requires more steps to get a job done, its file-handling functions are fairly primitive, and it lacks a front-end. But the advantages--extensibility,...

C Tools Plus, Turbo C Tools. (Blaise Computing Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C Tools Plus * Turbo C Tools Blaise Computing, inc. 819 Bancroft Way Berkeley, CA 94710 (415) 540-5441, fax (415) 540-1938 List-price: $149 Libraries designed for Microsoft C (5.0 and later) or Turbo C...

C 6.0a Professional Development System. (Microsoft Corp.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C 6.0a Professional Development System Microsoft Corp. One Microsoft Way Redmond, WA 98052-6399 (206)-882-8080, fax (206)-883-8101 List-price: $495 The current version of Microsoft's C compiler provides a complete...

C 8.0 Professional Edition. (Watcom) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C 8.0 Professional Edition Watcom 415 Phillip Street Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2L 3X2 (519)-886-3700, fax (519) 747-4971 List-price: $495 Watcom's latest version of their optimizing compiler and tools is a complete...

C++ Developer's Edition, Volume 2.1. (Zortech Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C++ Developer's Edition, Volume 2.1 Zortech, inc. 4-C Gill Street, Woburn, MA 01801 (617) 937-0696, fax (617) 937 0793 List-price: $450 Zortech's latest DOS-based C++ development system joins their other compilers to...

C-Worthy. (Solution Systems) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C-Worthy Solution Systems 3(5 541 Main Street, Suite 41 0 South Weymouth, MA 02190 (800) 821-2492, (617) 337-6963 fax (617) 337-7719 List price: $449 A user interface development system to design screens,...

C/Database Toolchest. (Mix Software) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * C/Database Toolchest Mix Software 1132 Commerce Drive Richardson, TX 75081 (800) 333-0330, (214) 238-8554 List price; $19.95 File management functions provided in B+Tree and ISAM libraries as well as a database...

CASE:W for C. (computer-aided software engineering tool for Windows development) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * CASE:W for C 1Dunwoody Park, Suite 130 Atlanta, GA 30338 (800) 635-1577, (404) 399-6236 fax (404) 399-9 516 List price: $795 A CASE tool for Windows application development that generates all the C code needed for...

Clear for C: Clear for dBASE. (Clear Software Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Clear for C * Clear for DBASE Clear Software, inc. 385 Elliot-Street Newton, MA 21-64 (617) 965-6755, (800) 338-1759 fax (617) 965-5310 List price: $1 99 Creates complete flow charts, tree charts, or...

Code Base 4.2, Code Base ++. (Sequiter Software Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Code Base 4.2 * Code Base ++ Sequiter Software, inc. 9644-54 Avenue, Suite 209 Edmonton , Alberta, Canada, T6E 5V1 (403) 448-0313, fax (403) 448-0315 List price: $295 Code Base is a full-featured library of C...

dANALYST GOLD. (Buzzwords International Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * dANALYST GOLD Buzzwords international Inc. 2879 Hopper Road Cape Girardeau, MO 63701 (314)334-6317, fax (314) 334-0794 List-price: $395 dANALYST GOLD is considered a "complete development environment" for both...

dBC III: dBC III Plus. (Lattice Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * dBC III * dBC III Plus Lattice, inc. 2500 S. Highland Avenue Lombard, IL 60448 (800) 444-4309, (312) 916-1100 bbs (312) 916-1200, fax (312) 916-1190 List price: $250 (dBC III), $500 (Plus) C Libraries...

dBx. (Desktop Ai) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * dBx Desktop Ai 303 Linwood Avenue Fairfield, CT 06430 (203)255-3400, fax (203) 259-8853 List price: $1,000 dBx produces both C source code and, in conjunction with either Turbo C from Borland International or...

FirstSQL C. (FFE Software) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * FirstSQL C FFE Software P.O. Box 1519 El Cerrito, CA 94530 (415) 232-6800, fax (415) 237-7433 List price: $295 Embedded SQL precompiler system that supports ANSI-standard SQL including extensions for DB2 and Oracle...

graphics-MENU. (Island Systems) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * graphics-MENU Island Systems 7 Mountain Road Burlington, MA 01803 (617)-273-0421, fax (617) 270-4437 List price: $179 Designed for graphics applications. The developer must have knowledge of the target language,...

Instant-C. (Rational Systems Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Instant-C Rational Systems, in 220 N. Main Street, 2nd loor Natick, MA 01760 (508) 653-6006, (800) 666-2585 fax (508) 655-2753 List-price: $795 A completely integrated C development environment that includes...

Logic Gem. (Sterling Castle) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Logic Gem Sterling Castle 702 Washington Street, Suite174 Marina del Rey, CA 90292-5598 (213) 306-3020, (800) 722-7853 fax (21 3) 821-8122 List price : $99 Logic processor and program code generator designed...

ObjectCraft. (ObjectCraft Inc.'s object-oriented programming tool) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * ObjectCraft ObjectCraft, Inc. 2124 Kittredge Street, Suite 118 Berkeley, CA 94704 (415) 540-4889 List-price: $399 Formerly known as ObjectVision, this generic object-oriented programming tool allows developers to...

Paradox Engine 2.0. (Borland International Inc.'s application programming interface) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Paradox Engine 2.0 Borland international 1800 Green Hills Road Scotts Valley, CA 95067 (408) 438-8400, fax (408) 439-9272 List price: $495 An Application Programming Interface (API) providing more than 80 functions...

Power Screen. (Blaise Computing Inc.'s runtime libraries) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Power Screen Blaise Computing, Inc. 819 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94710 (415) 540-5441, fax (415) 540-1938 List price: $149 Runtime libraries comprising a screen management system designed to allow the developer to...

PowerCell. (Raima Corp.'s library of C functions) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * PowerCell Raima Corp. 3245 146th Place, S. E. Bellevue, WA 98007 (206) 747-5570, (800) 327-2462 fax (206) 747-1991 List price: $695 for object code ($1,495 for source) A library of 120 C functions that...

Pro-C. (Pro-C Corp.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Data Base Development)
May 1, 1991... * PRO-C PRO-C Corp. (formerly Vestronix) 180 King Street South, Suite 550 Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, N2J 1P8 (519) 745-2700, bbs(519) 745-3635 fax (519) 745-3660 List-price:-$795 A source code generator used to...

ProGraphx Toolbox. (Stanwood Associates) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * ProGraphx Toolbox Stanwood Associates 303 East Ohio Street Chicago, IL 60611 (800) 752-7982, (312) 828-9734 fax (312) 828-9742 List price: $199.95 (source $200 more) This toolbox provides a graphics environment...

Quadbase-SQL. (Quadbase Systems Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Quadbase-SQL Quadbase Systems, inc. 4b 790 Lucerne Drive, Suite 51 Sunnyvale, CA 94086 (408) 738-6989, fax (408) 738-6980 List-price: $795 A full-featured relational database management system for C programmers. It...

Saber-C. (Saber Softwware Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Saber-C Saber Software, Inc. 185 Alewife Brook Parkway Cambridge, MA 02138 (617) 876-7636, fax (617) 547-9011 List price: $2,870 A C programming environment for UNIX workstations, such as Sun, SPARCstation, and...

SLATE Universal Printer Driver. (The Symmetry Group) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * SLATE Universal Printer Driver The Symmetry Group P.O. Box 26195 Columbus, OH 43226 (614) 431-2667, fax (614) 431-5734 List price: $299 The SLATE Universal Printer Driver provides the software developer with a...

Vermont Views. (Vermont Creative Software) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * Vermont Views Vermont Creative Software Pinnacle Meadows Richford, VT 05476 (802) 848-7731, (800) 848-1 248 fax (802) 848-7731 List price: $495 Complete interface development system. Included is the interactive Vermont...

WindowsMAKER 3.02. (Blue Sky Software Corp.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * WindowsMAKER 3.02 Blue Sky Software Corp. 2375 East Tropicana Avenue, Suite 320 Las Vegas, NV 89119 (702) 456-6365, fax (702) 434-0580 List price: $795 A Windows environment for generating complete C Windows...

XDB-C. (XDB Systems Inc.) (C Resource Guide: The C Side of Database Development)
May 1, 1991... * XDB.C XDB Systems, inc. 14700 Sweitzer Lane, Suite 101 Laurel, MY 20207 (301) 317-6800, fax (301) 317-7701 List-price: $595 A fully DB2- and SQL/DS-compatible development environment for C application developers....

LOOKUP above: let your users know which fields have lookup tables.... (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... When a PAL application is in a WAIT statement, it's important for the user to know which fields have lookup tables. Here's a way to modify your WAIT prompts based on whether or not there is a "HelpAndFill" lookup table available: PROC...

Multi-column magic: learn how to create rules that involve data from more than one column... (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... In early releases of R:BASE it was impossible to create a rule that involved an interaction between two or more columns without creating a computed column. For example, to make sure that a combination of columns in a table was unique, say FN...

Consulting tip.
May 1, 1991... Many software authors have trouble surviving because they don't know when to stop writing code or adding features. This is critical to your success. You have to know when to put a lid on a product and ship the 1.0 version. You can worry about...

Paradox tip. (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... If you use decimals in your Paradox numeric fields, be aware that queries may not work as you expect. Say you have a Customer Discount field with the value .101. Paradox will display it as .1, but it won't be included in the results of a query...

Go with what you know. (The C Side of Database Development) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... If you're an X-Base programmer, don't let the look of C intimidate you. Try comparing each line to its X-Base equivalent. You'll find you know more about C than you thought ! One complaint many first-timers have about C is that it has a...

The C link to Paradox. (C side of database development: Paradox Engine 2.0, AccSys for Paradox 2.61, and Phase One)(includes related articles on how to use an interface library, what a C language interface cannot do, and the three libraries' performance test scores) (Software Review) (evaluation)
May 1, 1991... Paradox Engine 2.0 $495 Borland International 1800 Green Hills Road Scotts Valley, CA 95066 (408) 438-8400 AccSys for Paradox 2.61 $750 ($395 single-user) Copia International, Ltd. 1964 Richton Dr. Wheaton, IL 60187...

Selling abroad. (software sales)
May 1, 1991... Selling software in Europe isn't all that different from selling it in the U.S. You still need to offer the fight product, service customers, and keep promises. So, you're a software developer with a hot program to peddle. You're already...

Your guide to stats. (includes related article on seven steps to successful statistical analysis) (buyers guide)
May 1, 1991... After compiling your data, you may find that you need to do the kind of analysis that only a statistical program can handle. in this special feature we offer evaluations of eight top stats packages-along with advice on how to evaluate others on...

A statistical primer. (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... Description vs. inference: As mentioned in the main article, there are two types of statistical techniques: descriptive and inferential. Descriptive statistics are used to describe a dataset, whereas, inferential methods are used to infer from...

Playing the numbers game. (Opinions) (column)
May 1, 1991... If polls are reliable, expect X-Base companies to share a piece of the pie with a strong, non X-Base competitor In 1989 I was a speaker at the Twin Cities PC User Group's first Dbase Fair and I have spoken at subsequent Fairs. I enjoy these...

A kinder, gentler 800-pound gorilla. (Ashton-Tate)(Opinions) (column)
May 1, 1991... In the days of the Reagan administration, we all got acquainted with the concept of "spin control": the art of interpreting difficult facts in a way that makes your side look good. Spin control earned Ronald Reagan the nickname Teflon...

Show it with hardware. (Opinions) (column)
May 1, 1991... I've talked myself out of lots of maintenance programming by recommending hardware upgrades. As programming gets more complex, hardware just gets cheaper. Need more speed? Upgrade the processor. 1/0 bound? Try a caching disk controller. The...

How a report writer saved my clients time and money.
May 1, 1991... Project: Create reports for a custom construction-cost program. The reports must be written quickly and inexpensively, yet each must conform to strict specifications. Tool: R&R Relational Report Writer (Concentric Data Systems, Inc.) A...

Family ties. (Clipper Developer)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... You might want to maintain a key field in Your databased that is actually modifiable. Yet this can impair the relationship you've set up between your parent and child databases. You can circumvent this problem by using an internal number field...

Control those clone windows. (Hands-on FoxPro)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... Fox Software added a rich set of windowing commands and memo field extensions to FoxPro 1.xx. Window names follow the same rules that apply to any FoxPro variable name-10 characters, beginning with a letter and containing letters, digits, or...

Converting the DBF data into WordPerfect files. (Hands-on dBASE IV/FoxPro)(column) (tutorial)
May 1, 1991... To use your DBASE IV/FoxPro data in a mail-merge, try this nifty data-conversion trick If you've tried to write a program to convert DBASE IV or FoxPro data into a WordPerfect secondary file for mail merge, you've probably run into some...

Dataline.
May 1, 1991... Don't Get Mad... BERKELEY, CA - Paperback Software recently lost another member of its low-cost product line when it settled a long-standing copyright suit by Lotus Corp. The company will no longer publish its spreadsheet program,...

Micro Consult Nederland. (ClipTools 3.0) (product announcement)
May 1, 1991... Micro Consult Nederland released Clip tools 3.0 Compatible with both Clipper 5.0 and Summer '87, this library includes more than 280 functions for database handling, datra compression, data encryption, security, menus, interrupt handling, and...

PowerSoft Inc. (QuickPix image processing software) (product announcement)
May 1, 1991... PowerSoft, Inc. introduced The resident program, which takes up 20K, watches the image's trigger. When the trigger appears, the image is displayed. The image can be displayed over the text, on the entire screen, over one quarter of the screen,...

Planet Software. (SQLBase Library for Clipper 2.01a) (product announcement)
May 1, 1991... Planet Software announced the SQLBase Library for Clipper version 12.01a. This library includes more than 150 SQL functions for Clipper Summer '87 and 5.0. The SQLBase Library gives Clipper Applications acess to Gupta Technologies' SQLSystem,...

Multiverse Communications. (dVOICE programming language and application generator) (product announcement)
May 1, 1991... Multiverse Communications recently released dVOICE, an X-Base programming language and application generator for creating programs that speak and can be accessed through touch-tone phones. it can be used as an automated phone receptionist,...

Contributors.
May 1, 1991... Contributors * Steve Greiner is MIS director for a Los Angeles-based firm. You can reach him at (213) 325-5633. * John Gunther owns Bucks vs Bytes Computer Consulting. He can be contacted at 28 Central Ave., Rosendale, New York 12472,...

Data Dictionaries for Database Administrators. (Book Review)
May 1, 1991... As we move into the era of information strategy, resources will become even more precious. Robin J. Vinden, in Data Dictionaries for Database Administrators, discusses what may become the cornerstone of modern information strategy: the...