info-mac@uw-beaver (info-mac) (07/17/84)
From: John Mitchener PO <jmitchen@wsmr07> I had the opportunity to play with a program called FileVision from TELOS software recently. It is a visual database system which combines graphic and textual information. FileVision is object oriented. Objects are drawn on the screen using tools similar to MacPaint and MacDraw. Types of objects are given names and information relating to the object can be added to the database by defining a form. Forms may contain up to 30 fields and you may define up to 16 types of objects. Since the program is a radical departure from what many of us have known of database software, an example may help explain it. One tutorial in the preliminary manual is a map of the U.S. By double-clicking on a state with the mouse, information about the state such as state name, population, and average income is displayed in a "form" format. The form can be modified and the tutorial has you add a field to indicate if you have visited the state. It is possible to highlight all of the states or just the states meeting certain selection criteria such as only the ones you have visited. You may have up to 4 conditions for selections. Relations include equal, greater than, less than, or unequal and you may use wildcards in the selection. Multiple object types can exist in the same drawing file and these can be individually highlighted or only certain types shown. A second more extensive tutorial of a wine cellar database is furnished in the manual. Examples of applications mentioned in the manual include a star map, anatomical drawings, a seating arrangement, and a parking lot map. Any application that can benefit from a graphic display is a good candidate for FileVision. The printout capabilities allow printing of the drawing file, selected portions of the drawing, ordered lists, and formatted reports including 1 up labels. I find that FileVision is a tremendously innovative product that demonstrates the power and flexibility of the Macintosh. It follows the conventions of the Macintosh interface very closely. The software is disk-based so the size of the file is not limited by internal memory. This is *not* a rework of old software. If FileVision is the first application of this type for the Mac, it is difficult to imagine the software for the Mac in three more years--when I first saw VisiCalc, I thought it was tops. Scheduled release is August, 1984. I'll try to answer questions that anyone may have. John