sch@linus.UUCP (Stephen C. Hemminger) (08/06/83)
From Micro Cornucopia, Number 12, June 1983, two reviews of dBASE II.
I do not own dBASE II, but I thought this might be of wide interest.
Second review is much more interesting than the first.
dBASE III
___________________
By Duane A. Huseby
This article is for those of you who are planning to
purchase a database management language (in particular dBase
II).
dBASE II is a relationa database mangement system writ-
ten in assembly language for the 8080, 8085, and Z80
microprocessor system, and it runs under CP/M. It is a pro-
duct of Ashton-Tate, Los Anglese, Ca. and sells for any-
where from $399 to $700.
According to a recent survey by Software News, nearly
40% of the respondants using a database management system
were using dBASE II. The second most popular database sys-
tem was used by only 8% of the respondents who were consid-
ering the purchase of a database management system in 1983
were planning to purchase dBASEII. All this indicates the
popularity of dBASE II.
My first exposure to dBASE II came after I had done
some work with systems like CALCSTAR and DATASTAR. I found
them to be good for many applications; however, I soon
discovered that these systems had limitations that made some
of my applications very difficult or impossible.
Canned applications programs rarely meet a buyers
needs. So, a programmer has to modify the software (if it
is posible to get the source.) dBASE II, on the other hand,
has all of the functions I need.
_T_w_o _L_e_v_e_l_s
The first is a basic level of capability that the first
time user will encounter. This level is similiar to the
spreadsheet systems and is menu driven. The creation of the
data base structure is straight forward and easy to do. The
data entry facilities are also easy to use unless your data-
base structure exceeds a dozen or so fields.
If you are working with many fields you will need to
carefully oraginze the data entry. Otherwise dBASE IIs
report generator provides quick screen generation.
Secondly, dBASE II is a complete database handling
language that is extremely versatile and powerful. With
this language you have complete control over data entry,
manipulation, and reporting.
The capability to generate your own unique application
program (command file) with dBASE II makes it a very power-
ful system.
.
_E_x_p_e_r_t_i_s_e _R_e_q_u_i_r_e_d
dBASE II is not for just anyone (contrary to claims
made in the advertisements). To fully implement the capa-
bility of dBASE II, programming expertise is required.
Several books are now on the market to help the user
implement dBASE II. Fox and Geller is marketing programs
advertised to do the programming for you and to debug the
ones you write. The University of Houston has a continuing
education class on dBASE II (costs $300). Plus there are a
number of(other programming aids on the market.
_N_o _g_r_a_p_h_i_c_s
The most serious feature lacking in dBASE II is graph-
ics. Many of(the applications for dBASE II are suited to
the enhancement of reports that include bar charts, pie
charts, line graphs, and combination piebar charts as pro-
duced by dGRAPH from Fox and Geller. I dot have dGRAPH yet;
but, I intend to get it soon.
dBASE II, Another View
______________________________
By David Thompson (editor of Micro Cornucopia)
.
Duane has touched on the primary strength and problems
of dBASE II. THe strength is its verastility, with just a
few critical limitations (the limits of 64 variables and 32
fields are the two primary ones).
dBASE II forces you to write very structured code which
is really great, plus, adding a field, or a new heading, or
whatever is a real joy.
_H_o_w_e_v_e_r,
The primary reason dBASE II needs all those aids is
that it is a cluge. It has developed over many years, with
a hodge podge of new commands. Each command has its own
peculiarities.
Some commands work with numeric data, othes with
charater data or logicla data, and still others work with
two or three of the above. In many case it is not immedi-
ately obvious which works with which.
Lets say you store characters in a variable.
STORE "NEWNAME" TO TEMP
Now you can use TEMP in place of the character string
"NEWNAME".
STORE TEMP TO ANOTHERTEMP
Now ANOTHERTEMP contains the characters "NEWNAME".
However, if you wante to call a file from the disk and
you said:
USE TEMP
You would get the file named "TEMP" rather than the file
name "NEWNAME". TO use TEMP as a variable with the USE com-
mand, you would have to say:
USE &TEMP
Which turns TEMP int a macro. THis is just the tip of
a very inconsistent iceberg. For instance, if you wanted to
check to see if a record has been deleted you say:
If*
... then do something
.
And if you wanted to see if a record had not been
deleted you would probably say:
If.NOT.*
.... then do something
Unfortunately this sends my copy into never-never land.
The .NOT. operator is supposed to work with any logical
(true/false) statement or value, but it will not work with
the "*"operator. There is obviously something special about
the way the "*" was created but with all these special case
the whole this is impossible to document.
Ninety percent of the problems I have had with dBASE II
have been due to these little surprises. I/ve even had two
identical lines of code, act in tow completely different
ways even though both lines were in the same routine. Try
debugging that! I went nuts the first time it happened!
Now I am a little more wary.
Since some dBASE commands are sensitive to data types,
you`d think that you could specify the data types of(the
varibles, so you have some error checking. You cant. Pascal
with its rigid data structure is a refreshing imprgvement in
this regard.
_A _N_e_w _d_B_A_S_E?
Ashton-Tate is circulating beta-test copies of a
totally new data-base language. I hope th have kept the
structured language approach and the easy to read command
style, but I hope they have started over from scratch on the
inside.
I have yet to see anything else on the market that
comes as close to meeting my need for a veratile, powerful,
quick to write, easy to read, database handling language as
dBASE II. That is why dBASE II is so popular. But when
somet-thing is better does come along, I`m going to be first
in line!
Personally, I think Dave is too optimistic. Surely, the new database
will be "upward compatiable" with the old one!
--
Stephen Hemminger, Mitre Corp. Bedford MA
{allegra,genrad,ihnp4, utzoo}!linus!sch (UUCP)
linus!sch@mitre-bedford (ARPA)jph@whuxlb.UUCP (08/06/83)
#R:linus:-25000:whuxlb:14900002:000:1361 whuxlb!jph Aug 6 11:55:00 1983 Another interesting product on the market is Knowledge Man from Micro Data Base Systems. I have used it and it has at least as many features as DBase II and the commands appear to work with any mix of of data types (numeric, string, character). It allows up to 255 fields per record which allows a lot more flexibility than Dbase II. A command language is proved that has IF..THEN.. ELSE, WHILE..ENDWHILE, TEST..CASE, dimensioned variables, and parameters to a procedure. Very nice flexibility is provided by the SORT and INDEX commands for ordering of a file and the records in a file can contain 'virtual' fields which are computed by other variables either in the record or defined by the user. It is also easy to extract data from the data base so that it is readable by a BASIC program or input to VisiCalc (Knowledge Man contains a spread sheet and the 'cells' are available to the procedures that a user can write). One of the nicest things is the ability to have more than one file/table open at once and to be able to 'join' corresponding entries from various tables. It will be interesting to see how well received this product is. I would recommend it to anyone who is considering DBase II (since it cost about the same). I have been running it on a 192K IBM-PC with some large tables and it holds together well. Jim Holtman ...harpo!whuxlb!jph
Jack H. Smith <jhsmith@Crdc.ARPA> (01/16/85)
Dear 'pencin'; Thanks very much for your answer to my querry... Although I haven't tried the solution out yet, you seem to have put your finger right on the problem...( I haven't been 'returning to main-menu, but I've been calling it with a DO...). Thanks agains, and thank God & Dave Towson for Info-cpm... Jack H. Smith
Jack H. Smith <jhsmith@Crdc.ARPA> (01/16/85)
O.K.; so I didn't really make myself clear regarding the answer to my question about the 'Too many files open' error with dbaseII...... The problem was that I was looping back to the menu by issueing a DO command when I should've been using a RETURN command. I guess after looping around with DO's, the dbaseII package was opening another file each time I looped until it thought I'd opened Too Many files... I haven't tried this solution as yet, (I haven't had time), but it sure sounds reasonable.... Thanks for keeping me on my toes guys... Jack H. Smith
D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA (07/29/85)
I AM SOMEWHAT NEW AT THIS. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS ANY SUCH THING AS AS COMPILER FOR DBASE II? IT HAS OCCURRED TO ME THAT THE DAY MAY COME WHEN I DON'T WANT TO GIVE AWAY THE SOURCES WITH A PROGRAM. AT LEAST MBASIC PROGRAMS COULD BE PROTECTED AGAINST LISTING. -------
hollombe@ttidcc.UUCP (The Polymath) (07/31/85)
In article <248@brl-tgr.ARPA> D-ROGERS@EDWARDS-2060.ARPA writes: >I AM SOMEWHAT NEW AT THIS. DOES ANYONE KNOW IF THERE IS ANY SUCH THING AS >AS COMPILER FOR DBASE II? IT HAS OCCURRED TO ME THAT THE DAY MAY COME >WHEN I DON'T WANT TO GIVE AWAY THE SOURCES WITH A PROGRAM. AT LEAST MBASIC >PROGRAMS COULD BE PROTECTED AGAINST LISTING. Last I heard there was no dBase II compiler, but there was a version available from Ashton-Tate specifically for people in your position. It's a subset of dBase II that allows your command files to be run, but doesn't give the user access to the dBase command level. I'm not sure if the source is accessible from other text editors with this version. I expect A-T will be happy to tell you about it (and sell you a license). -_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_ The Polymath (aka: Jerry Hollombe) Citicorp TTI Common Sense is what tells you that a ten 3100 Ocean Park Blvd. pound weight falls ten times as fast as a Santa Monica, CA 90405 one pound weight. (213) 450-9111, ext. 2483 {philabs,randvax,trwrb,vortex}!ttidca!ttidcc!hollombe
RDones.es@XEROX.ARPA (07/31/85)
Try Wordtech Systems (415)254-0900. They have compliers for Dbase II and Dbase III. Wildman
lbg@gitpyr.UUCP (Lee B Grey, Programmer Extraordinaire) (08/13/85)
> Last I heard there was no dBase II compiler, but there was a version > available from Ashton-Tate specifically for people in your position. There is something called DBCompiler. It's fairly nice, but, last time I looked at it, it did not have the capability of compiling programs which utilized the macro (&) function. It seemed fairly simple to add this capability. It is possible that they have, by now. Also, a company called Fox & Geller puts out some utilities which, I believe, include a dBASE compiler. I know for a fact that there ARE ways to get your dBASE code compiled. Just hunt around. Lee Grey
jeffm@mmintl.UUCP (Jeffrey Miller) (08/20/85)
* There's a program called 'Clipper' by some Calif. company that compiles dbaseII. I've also seen another one advertised but I don't remember the name. ************************************************* * Jeff Miller * * Multimate International Corp. * * 52 Oakland Avenue * * East Hartford, CT 06108-9911 * * UUCP: * * ...!seismo!utah-cs!utah-gr!pwa-b!mmintl!jeffm * ************************************************* *