sue@murdu.OZ (Sue McPherson) (01/18/89)
I'm posting this query in the hope that some-one has solved the problem I'm facing. I have an IBM PC compatible (a 386 with 4Mb of memory and 40Mb HD) and I want to set up a database which will contain approx 4,500 records. The records will contain some ordinary numeric and character fields and (here's the hard part) one field which contains textual information (between 100 and 1000 characters) and the text would ideally be in a word processing format (as it needs to store supscripts and superscripts, although I could use imbedded RTF commands). Bearing in mind that the end users will be almost computer illiterate (admin/wp types) I need a package which will allow a variable length field to be displayed and edited on the screen (along with the other fields). Note: I don't have to be able to search the text, only output it in reports. The only package I have seen which appeals is Framework which allows you to have a word proccessing "frame" as a field in a record, ie. you drop into the word processor when you edit the field. The only problem is that according to the support people a database larger than 2000 records is not recommended. I've considered a few PC databases but none of them seem to do what I want. The previous consultant who worked on this had a DBase III+ database for the simple info and a WP file for each of the text entries. Needless to say the end-users never mastered the art of jumping between Word and DBase and the consultant was unable to get the reporting programs to include the text. If anyone has a solution to this problem or could suggest a Database package which would be suitable for this applications I would greatly appreciate your advice. Many Thanks, Sue McPherson sue@murdu.mu.oz Software Contracts Group University of Melbourne Parkville 3052 Australia
awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) (01/24/89)
Not to be overtly commercial, but why not try dBASE IV? It is known to be friendly to "computer illiterates," it has good variable-length text support (in 'memo' fields) and it includes a word processor. I think whoever sold you Framework missed a trick. /alastair/
ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) (01/26/89)
In article <1@dbase.UUCP> awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) writes: > >Not to be overtly commercial, but why not try dBASE IV? It is known to To be even less commercial, you might consider Bibliofile, my data base described in COMPUTERS AND THE HUMANITIES 18 (1984), pp. 71-85. Designed originally for medieval Latin texts and romanized Japanese, Bibliofile will happily accept input that will choke most commercial data bases. Although primarily designed for text, it does have double precision floating point and single precision integer arithmetic. Currently Bibliofile is available for SCO Xenix 2.2, MSDOS, 4.3 BSD UNIX (VAX 11/750, VAX 8800, Sun, etc.). The current price is $00.00, but this may double in the near future. -:) If you do decide to go with D-base(d)-IV, let me know how it runs under 4.3 BSD on a VAX 8800 or a Sun Work Station. Earl H. Kinmonth History Department University of California, Davis Davis, California 95616 916-752-1636 (day: voice, night: fax) 916-752-0776 (secretary) ucbvax!ucdavis!ucdked!cck (email) cc-dnet.ucdavis.edu (request ucdked, login as guest)
awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) (01/27/89)
In article <19496@agate.BERKELEY.EDU>, ked@garnet.berkeley.edu (Earl H. Kinmonth) writes: > In article <1@dbase.UUCP> awd@dbase.UUCP (Alastair Dallas) writes: > > > >Not to be overtly commercial, but why not try dBASE IV? It is known to > > To be even less commercial, you might consider Bibliofile, my data base > > <stuff deleted> > > If you do decide to go with D-base(d)-IV, let me know how it runs under > 4.3 BSD on a VAX 8800 or a Sun Work Station. > > Earl H. Kinmonth > History Department > University of California, Davis > Davis, California 95616 We're working on other ports, but I'm writing this on a Pyramid running 4.3 BSD and I can assure you that dBASE IV runs quite well in this environment. I can also run dBASE IV on our Sun 386i native or in a DOS window. This doesn't help the original poster, because these ports are not available to the public (yet). But please don't assume that dBASE is a port from CP/M, either. We have five years of improvements on our original complete rewrite in C, and our code is more portable than a lot of, shall we say, academic applications, in addition to being well optimized for a particular platform (i.e., MS-DOS). The difference between shareware from Earl and dBASE IV is that dBASE (and other commercial products) cost more, don't come with source code and, unlike the free stuff, they attract slings and arrows. But we're committed to supporting, improving and porting our products into the next century, whereas if Earl gets a better job offer in Sri Lanka tomorrow, you're out of luck. I hope this is received in the spirit in which it is intended--I have no intention of "selling" anyone on dBASE, and these opinions are entirely my own. (I have one supervisor who knows I have access to usenet, and she tries not to think about my access to postnews, because she knows I have a big mouth.) /alastair/