[comp.databases] Data Dictionary on INGRES

chesky@leland.Stanford.EDU (Sanjay) (04/12/91)

In article <1991Apr11.093527.13489@ctl.co.nz> mcintoshc@ctl.co.nz writes:
>We have got INGRES on both Unix and pc platforms, and while I like the product
>very much ( with one or two gripes but thats another mail :-) ), one thing 
>it lacks is a data dictionary.
>
>Does anyone use/know of a product that can help ??
>
>
>Colin

As of Dec 90 Ingres did not have a Data Dictionary. The information
you need is quite easilty accessible from the system catalogs. I know
I built one under vers 6.1.

Just make sure that your object names in the dictionary application
not clash e.g. Do not have form names like RUN_REPORTS ets.

I don't remember exactly why but that was a potential problem. But it
was a long time ago and since there won't be many concurrency issues
you may be able to use a lot of QBF frames to shorten development time.
I would say in 2-3 weeks you can generate a pretty goata dictionary.
That is the time it took me. THe one assumption that I had made was that
a variable in an application must have the same datatype (but may be of
different sizes).

Hope you can make people run the data dictionary with more success
It is always hard to get management to recognise the value of a data
dictionary.

 SANJAY