muller@sbsvax.UUCP (Francois Muller) (01/20/90)
We have to solve the following industrial applications problem: for a vehicle factory, a stock management system connected to a full automatic (i.e. "ro botized") stock has to be implemented. That means, the stocking system is provided with a microprocessor which accepts standardized messages of fixed length (like "go to location (X,Y,Z) and take part no. i") via a V24 link. The company which produces the stock system usually delivers it as a package including a MICRO-VAX 2, stock management software (which supports the described message-passing), the whole bunch running under VMS. As the existing stock management software seems to be unsatisfying, we have to reimplement it, so our first question is: do powerful (database-management) tools exist on the MICRO-VAX (VMS/UNIX?) which also allow the use of low level subroutines to manage the message handling ( which consists of sending and receiving ASCII value-blocks) ? The second question raises because of the amount of data, which is relatively small (around 7000 items to store) and of the intention to install the whole as a single user system: this would make the use of a smaller system a far better choice and significantly reduce costs. That's why we'd really appreciate some suggestions from the small system users about the following points: -what about using a MAC2 and 4D? Is there a possibility to call low-level procedures? -I heard about a MAC C-compiler with "database toolbox"... -What about comparable solutions on 386-based machines ? -other suggestions (hardware, software) Thanks in advance!! P.S. if this article seems misplaced to anyone, say it! :-) :-)