rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) (01/31/91)
Currently I use a DOS box in my home to, among other things, manage a 10,000-name mailing list. Each record is about 300 bytes, so the whole thing fits in a bit over 3 megabytes. Having just gone on spree throughout the Internet collecting lots of useful public-domain software for SysV, I'm now considering taking the plunge and installing SysV at home. This means replacing all my DOS software with Unix lookalikes, and I've accomplished that except for the database stuff. All I need is relatively simple data entry, sorting, searching, and printing capabilities; I don't need a $500 FoxBase or Paradox package. Any recommendations on low-cost or no-cost database software for SysV? -rich P.S. Another item I'm curious about: spreadsheet software.
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (02/01/91)
In article <6278@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes: >Currently I use a DOS box in my home to, among other things, manage a >10,000-name mailing list. Each record is about 300 bytes, so the whole >thing fits in a bit over 3 megabytes. >Having just gone on spree throughout the Internet collecting lots of useful >public-domain software for SysV, I'm now considering taking the plunge and >installing SysV at home. This means replacing all my DOS software with Unix >lookalikes, and I've accomplished that except for the database stuff. >All I need is relatively simple data entry, sorting, searching, and printing >capabilities; I don't need a $500 FoxBase or Paradox package. >Any recommendations on low-cost or no-cost database software for SysV? There was something called "cardfile" that might work that was posted sometime in October to one of the source groups. However, if you already have a certain amount of time and money invested in DOS and your machine is going to be a '386, why not get VP/ix or Merge and continue to run DOS as a unix task? I have reservations about this approach in a multiuser environment, but for a personal machine it works great and also maintains your ability to handle all your old archive files without having to convert everything for the new environment. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us
fangchin@elaine46.stanford.edu (Chin Fang) (02/02/91)
In article <6278@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes: [stuff deleted] > >Having just gone on spree throughout the Internet collecting lots of useful >public-domain software for SysV, I'm now considering taking the plunge and >installing SysV at home. This means replacing all my DOS software with Unix >lookalikes, and I've accomplished that except for the database stuff. > >All I need is relatively simple data entry, sorting, searching, and printing >capabilities; I don't need a $500 FoxBase or Paradox package. > >Any recommendations on low-cost or no-cost database software for SysV? > >P.S. Another item I'm curious about: spreadsheet software. I will try to answer all your questions and similar questions undoubtably would be raised by other people with similar needs. Data base, go to uunet.uu.net either comp.sources.unix/volume20 for reldb a set of rational data base tools OR comp.sources.misc/volume16 for mbase for an Informix like data base engine (<- key, an engine!) Spreadsheet, sc6.9 (6.8 available from uunet.uu.net/comp.sources.unix/\ volume23. Finally, I urge everyone who is looking for PD software do youself a favor by getting a copy of index23.2 from comp.sources.unix/volume23 or index from comp.sources.misc. They both are annotated and tell you what are available in the two archives for the two great news group postings. If you can't find anything there for your SysVr3 home system or whatsoever, THEN ask the net! I am hoping my answer to be included in FAQ, who is maintaining it these days? I haven't seen it for looooooong time! Regards, Chin Fang Mechanical Engineering Department Stanford University fangchin@portia.stanford.edu
les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) (02/04/91)
In article <6332@spdcc.SPDCC.COM> rbraun@spdcc.COM (Rich Braun) writes: >Insofar as VP/ix is concerned, I'm concerned about its performance. Can >you tell me what to expect in terms of speed when I instruct the freebie >DOS (read: low-performance even with PCKWIK, a disk cache) software to >sort 10,000 records under VP/ix? Let's say an operation now takes 8 >minutes. How long will it take with VP/ix, given identical hardware and >given the existence of a disk cache under DOS? I haven't done any formal timing but the general feeling I get is that VP/ix disk operations tend to be faster than native DOS due to the better performance of the unix disk cache. I would expect this to vary wildly depending on (a) the match between the i/o requests and the cache management (note that a cache may not help much with a huge sort or random i/o), and (b) the size of the individual requests, with smaller requests generating more system call overhead. On a personal machine, though, you have the option of simply re-booting under dos if it really makes a difference. All you have to do is reserve a partition on the HD and keep a boot floppy around. >Minor note on VP/ix performance (note that I have this on my office >computer): it causes the serial port to drop characters. One can >observe this either by using Procomm to dial out, or by dialing into >the Unix system and running VP/ix. (Yes, this does give you COMMAND.COM >remotely at 2400 baud. You've got to see it to believe it...!) Like everything else on unix, it depends on the machine speed and the load of other tasks. On a 33Mhz 386 w/5Megs memory and no network, I have no trouble at all with 2400 baud operations under VP/ix even with a compile going on at the same time. However, if you have enough operations going on that you are paging out the VP/ix process, I would expect trouble. Les Mikesell les@chinet.chi.il.us