bjhicks@trillium.waterloo.edu (Barbara Hicks) (03/05/89)
Here is the result of my request for information
concerning Public Domain or Shareware Database Programs.
I received four replies containing two votes for PC-File, one vote
for VP-Info (a commercial product) and one for Watfile/Plus (also
commercial).
Here is a summary of each of the programs:
PC-File
=======
Published by Jim Button, this shareware database has two different versions.
"PC-File+" and "PC-File:db". The main difference between the two is that
the "db" version creates and uses files in the same format as dBase III.
Therefore, data is completely transferable between dBase III and PC-File:db.
In contrast, PC-File+ uses its own file format.
Both programs are available by anonymous FTP from SIMTEL20.ARMY.MIL
(maintained by the ever-present Keith Petersen :-) who uses PC-File+ to
catalog the Simtel20 archives). Both programs use a user-friendly menu-
driven style and will import from/export to other file formats.
From my own (very) recent experiences using PC-File:db, I would say that it
is every easy to use (I have barely touched the documentation yet :-)
With very little effort I have set up a test database to catalog my growing
photograph collection. Brendan Fagan writes:
"...got copies of PC-File:db and was able to set up simple
applications in an hour, get person to enter data in 15 minutes."
Jim Button has also written a spreadsheet program called PC-Calc that can
extract information from a PC-File database. He has also written several
other programs (including a communications package).
VP-Info
=======
This is a commercial product published by Paperback Software. It can
apparently be obtained by mail order from PC-Connections for approx $100 (U.S.
probably). Not knowing anything about this, I quote from Gary Barret:
"VP-Info is as fully-featured as Dbase. It's programmatic
language very much resembles that of Dbase (at least Dbase II)"
Paperback Software also publishes a Lotus 123 clone called VP-Planner.
Apparently, these two can be used in combination with each other.
Watfile/Plus
============
This is published by Watcom Software (a spinoff from the University of
Waterloo, Canada) and has versions written for MS-DOS, VAX/VMS, VM/CMS,
and for the Macintosh computer. Johnathon Vail says that it satisfies
all of his database needs. I have not looked at it yet. It too is a
commercial product, but I don't know how much it costs.
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My thanks to Keith Petersen, Gary Barrett, Brendan Fagan and Johnathon Vail
for taking the time to reply.
Barbara Hicks
bjhicks@trillium.waterloo.edu
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada