rapp@balr.com (Chuck Rapp) (07/18/90)
My question deals with accessing a database from an application, both of which reside on the same Macintosh. First some background. Environment: Macintosh SE/30 with 8MB real memory and Virtual 2.0, making 14MB overall. Also an 80MB internal HD. Goal: I have access to a lexicon stored in an Oracle DB which, in turn, runs on a VAX. The VAX uses VMS. I will soon be receiving the common lisp source code for a natural language processing system. I have Macintosh Allegro Common Lisp (MACL) on my Mac and have given it 7MB of memory. I would like to port the lexical database to a DB on my Macintosh and use it with the lisp software because this lexicon is one of the best I have used. My background is mostly UNIX and there is not problem with running two communicating processes: one for my lisp program, the other for the database. However, concerning multifinder and databases, I have questions: 1) Can I get my lisp software to communicate with a database? MACL can access C functions. I envision these C functions doing the LISP<-->DB interface. 2) Does the DB server reside in the same memory as my LISP? My LISP software needs as much memory as I can give it and I would not like to lose some to the database. I would prefer the database to run as a separate application in another patch of memory. 3) What database software would you recommend? I understand that 4th Dimension has an Oracle/SQL extension while Foxbase+/Mac has speed. As for storage, I can purchase an external hard drive. I would like to hear from those who have some experience with Mac databases and writing C-based applications which access the database. -- | Chuck Rapp | If you're Bell Labs employees, then where are your | | BALR, Inc. | badges? Badges? Badges?! We have no badges. We | | rapp@balr.com | don't need no stinking badges! | +---------------+----------------------------------------------------+
mryman@oucsace.cs.OHIOU.EDU (Mark Ryman) (06/25/91)
My supervisor has recently asked me to dig up some information on database
packages available for Macintosh computers. I currently am not familiar with
any such packages, but I am sure there must be several out there on the market.
I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide me with regards to
database packages for Macintosh. I am not sure what type of data we will be
using such a package for or how powerful the package needs to be. I would
like to have general descriptions, price ranges, information on where the
packages can be obtained and who to contact for additonal information.
Please e-mail replies to this account or aldstf04@ouaccvmb.bitnet and also to
aldstf16@ouaccvmb.bitnet. Thanks in advance.
-Mark Ryman