neruda@beech.cis.ohio-state.edu (Steve Neruda) (04/22/89)
How does FoxBase compare with 4D functionality wise? How difficult is it to implement a multiuser database using Foxbase (do you have to do all the file and record locking or does foxbase handle that, is foxbase still fast running multiuser?). Can you send information to external ports from within the program? What about import export capabilities? I would appreciate any info, please no warfare please, I don't mean to restart any of the recent controversy. Also I was told by our local (and less than helpful) software dealer that you can only purchase the multiuser version through the company. Is this true? Can I get a demo instead? Does the regular documentation contain information on multiuser considerations? Thanks for the help steve neruda (neruda@cis.ohio-state.edu) ps. standard generic disclaimer applies
steve@violet.berkeley.edu (Steve Goldfield) (04/22/89)
In article <44629@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Steve Neruda <neruda@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes:
#>Also I was told by our local (and less than helpful) software dealer
#> that you can only purchase the multiuser version through the company.
#> Is this true?
Definitely not true. 800 Software quoted me (discounted)
prices for both single-user and multiuser versions of
Foxbase on the Mac.
Steve Goldfieldxdaa374@ut-emx.UUCP (William T. Douglass) (04/22/89)
In article <44629@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Steve Neruda writes: >How does FoxBase compare with 4D functionality wise? How difficult is it to > implement a multiuser database using Foxbase (do you have to do all the file > and record locking or does foxbase handle that, We were programming the single-user version for about a half year, before upgrading to the multi-user version. While the amount of recoding needed was fairly minor, it certainly required some additional work to migrate the applications for multi-uesr operation. You need to set locks for some commands to work, while other operations do automatic locking. It is not completely transparent (I do not believe that 4D is, either.) > is foxbase still fast > running multiuser?). Not nearly as fast. We were very impressed initially with the performance of FoxBase+/Mac, but the multi-user version has so far been rather disappointing. Running FoxBase off a LocalTalk-commected fileserver, I find the performance slower but adequate in exclusive (single-user) mode, and bad impaired in multi-user mode. I have been told that lack of index caching is to blame; if so, I hope Fox can overcome this in future versions. I have some reports that take 5 times longer to run under multi-user mode (as opposed to single-user off the file server.) >Can you send information to external ports from within > the program? Supports sending data out the serial port. In fact, we print mailing label to the ImageWriter this fast. Works well. >What about import export capabilities? Tab & comma-delimited files, and SDF. More would be nice, but not essential. >Also I was told by our local (and less than helpful) software dealer > that you can only purchase the multiuser version through the company. > Is this true? Can I get a demo instead? Does the regular documentation > contain information on multiuser considerations? > We got our upgrade through Fox itself. No real problems there. I believe the new (rewritten) documentation includes the chapter on multi-user operation. As usual, these are my opinions. Other comtributions welcome. -- Bill Douglass, TCADA "I dreamed I was to take a test, in a Dairy Queen, on another planet." L. Anderson
alexis@ccnysci.UUCP (Alexis Rosen) (04/29/89)
In article <44629@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Steve Neruda <neruda@cis.ohio-state.edu> writes: >How does FoxBase compare with 4D functionality wise? How difficult is it to > implement a multiuser database using Foxbase (do you have to do all the file > and record locking or does foxbase handle that, is foxbase still fast > running multiuser?). Both Fox and 4D claim that they can automatically run single-user code in multi-user mode. In both cases, you'd have to be crazy to do that. The performance hits would be terrible. In Fox, some things won't work right if you wrote things without thinking about the move to multi-user. For example, Replace field1 With "data" won't work in m-u mode because the record isn't autolocked, but Replace Next 1 field1 With "data" which does the same thing in single-user mode, will work properly in m-u mode. Also, for Fox you'd have to write an error-handler to deal with situations where you fail to achieve a lock. This is not difficult and there's an example in the manual which works verbatim. The nice thing about Fox is that all m-u code will work in a single-user implementation. All of the m-u stuff becomes No-ops. Very convenient. As for speed, that's a relative issue. It's very slow compared to single-user. It's lightning-quick compared to all other Mac databases (not to mention the only really safe one). Version 2.0, which just went into Beta, is drastically improved in this respect, but it's still much slower than single-user. > Can you send information to external ports from within > the program? What about import export capabilities? There's a built-in capability to send stuff out a serial port. It lets you specify bps, parity, and handshake. This works very very well for printing to high-speed serial printers with no Mac driver, for example. It can't recieve stuff, but writing an XCMD to do that won't be too bad if you have to do it. Import and Export formats supported: Delimited text, "Basic" delimited text, and SDF. Of course, any dbf file works without a need to import. >Also I was told by our local (and less than helpful) software dealer > that you can only purchase the multiuser version through the company. Bull. Try Mac Connection. Demos can be had for $5 from Fox, but the accompanying documentation is poor (but it will give you a taste of what Fox can do). The manuals for single-user cover the commands for m-u mode. --- Alexis Rosen alexis@ccnysci.{uucp,bitnet} alexis@rascal.ics.utexas.edu (last resort)