psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm) (01/15/90)
In article <252@pallas.UUCP>, lbert359@pallas.UUCP (Lee Bertagnolli) writes: > I need some information regarding software application development > on DOS system. I am going to get involved in a development project > where the resultant software must do the following: provide an > intuitive menu/screen structure; must be capable of handling large > files (250,000+ records); must be capable of generating graphs for > screen display and print; must be able to import ascii files; and > more. Goodness! This is a tough request, not because of the demands you put on the software, but because of the wealth of tools available! I'm going to take a stab at this one, but not because I'm PC super- programmer. All I know (aside from following reviews for some of the larger packages) is how to get on the mailing list for the catalogs from Programmer's Connection, a decent mail-order company that specializes in PC software development tools. They're at 7249 Whipple Avenue NW, North Canton, Ohio, USA 44720, 800-336-1166 (voice, USA), 800-225-1166 (voice, Canada), 216-494-3781 (voice, everywhere else), 216-494-5260 (FAX). There are other such companies; check out the back of BYTE and PC MAGAZINE for some of them. If you're going the RDBMS route (and willing to bear in mind that I've read about such packages but never used one), consider Paradox. Its name comes from the "paradox" that such a powerful package would be easy to use. Sounds like PR hype, but all the reviews (including a recent one in INFOWORLD) agree. (Do you like the idea of ad-hoc queries being easy, or are you worried about too-easy access to your database? Oh, well, that's a concern for any solution that doesn't involve a proprietary format.) It's got a good programming language, and I think I heard about a set of libraries from Borland that let Turbo Pascal and C programs access Paradox databases. I don't know of any third party Paradox Application Language tools; either straight Paradox is powerful enough, or everyone's going for dBase compatibility. As far as dBase compatibility goes, the most popular is probably Clipper; there quite a few third party packages for it. Clarion is supposed to be good for development, and they sell libraries that do everything you ask for, except maybe printing graphics. Printing graphics is the toughest of your requirements. I skimmed through the Winter 1990 catalog from Programmer's Connection; here's what I found: o Enhanced Graphics Toolkit and Printer Driver Toolkit for Enhanced Graphics Tookit from Connel Scientific Graphics. I can't tell if it does more than screen dumps. Only EGA/VGA displays, Epson and IBM dot matrix printers, and LaserJet laser printers. For Turbo Pascal and C, and Microsoft C, Fortran, Quick Basic, and Quick C. o Vitamin C from Creative Programming has "printer routines"; I don't know if that means graphics. It works with VCScreen, their screen painter. For C. o GENUS Microprogamming has several products for manipulating graphics in PCX format. You can send such an image to a printer, but I can't tell if it can be bigger than the screen. Probably. o Look into Baby Driver from Ithaca Street Software. It's "a linkable function library that allows a graphics application to print from the screen or from in-memory bitmap images." It supports lots of printers. For Turbo Pascal, or C from Borland, Lattice, Microsoft, or Zortech (including Zortech C++). There's something about MS Fortran and QuickBasic, too. o GRAFPLUS from Jewell Technologies is a screen dump utility, similar to the DOS GRAPHICS command. It works with lots of graphics modes and printers. Yeah, I know, it's probably not what you want. o G-WIZ Business and Scientific Graphics, and G-RUN, are both from Mightysoft. The latter claims to support C, Clipper, dBase, Fortran, Foxbase, Oracle, Pascal, R:Base, and Revelation. It talks about "graphs on a page", so I guess it supports printers. Displays? I dunno. (Hey, maybe the real market opportunity is, not coming up with a good package for sending graphics to a printer, but writing a comprehensible ad blurb for one.) o Odyssey Software System's Turbo G GRAPHICS Development Library (I don't make up these capitalizations, I just type 'em) looks like it does presentation graphics from C to "IBM style printers and [Hewlett Packard and Houston Instruments] plotters", and supports lots of graphics adapters. o lp from Softfocus (see note on capitalization above) "is a library of printer routines" for C; I think it's just (very rich) text. SLATE from the Symmetry Group sounds virtually identical. They both sound like they're aimed at folks who are writing word processors and need printer support. o South Mountain Software's Essential Graphics does lots of stuff for displays; "Hardcopy is available to IBM, Okidata, Epson, and Toshiba dot matrix printers, HP Lasers [sic.] and HP plotters." For C. o GRAFLIB supports "CGA, EGA, VGa and Hercules Graphics cards; and Epson, Okidata, HP LaserJet and HP DeskJet compatible printers." So does INGRAF, but it also handles plotters. PLOTLIB *only* supports plotters. They come from Sutrasoft, include source, and support C, Fortran, and QuickBasic. o Yellick Computing's Printer Control Function Library lets you print Clipper source code, and contains a "tutorial on printer control methods and report design". (There are more packages for database management, menu/screen generation, and screen graphics for C and Pascal than I can type in!) > Thanks in advance. Please e-mail responses. I will post a summary. I have e-mailed this (to both the addresses below); I've also posted it directly. Please bear in mind that I haven't used any of these packages, and can't answer any questions. If you want more information, call Programmer's Connection (for a catalog, or a brochure from the publisher). > Lee Bertagnolli, pallas!lbert359, lbert359@athenanet.com Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.