Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site linus.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!sch From: sch@linus.UUCP (Stephen C. Hemminger) Newsgroups: net.micro.cpm Subject: dBASE II (two reviews) Message-ID: <250@linus.UUCP> Date: Fri, 5-Aug-83 21:38:14 EDT Article-I.D.: linus.250 Posted: Fri Aug 5 21:38:14 1983 Date-Received: Fri, 5-Aug-83 22:49:29 EDT Organization: MITRE Corp., Bedford MA Lines: 226 From Micro Cornucopia, Number 12, June 1983, two reviews of dBASE II. I do not own dBASE II, but I thought this might be of wide interest. Second review is much more interesting than the first. dBASE III ___________________ By Duane A. Huseby This article is for those of you who are planning to purchase a database management language (in particular dBase II). dBASE II is a relationa database mangement system writ- ten in assembly language for the 8080, 8085, and Z80 microprocessor system, and it runs under CP/M. It is a pro- duct of Ashton-Tate, Los Anglese, Ca. and sells for any- where from $399 to $700. According to a recent survey by Software News, nearly 40% of the respondants using a database management system were using dBASE II. The second most popular database sys- tem was used by only 8% of the respondents who were consid- ering the purchase of a database management system in 1983 were planning to purchase dBASEII. All this indicates the popularity of dBASE II. My first exposure to dBASE II came after I had done some work with systems like CALCSTAR and DATASTAR. I found them to be good for many applications; however, I soon discovered that these systems had limitations that made some of my applications very difficult or impossible. Canned applications programs rarely meet a buyers needs. So, a programmer has to modify the software (if it is posible to get the source.) dBASE II, on the other hand, has all of the functions I need. _T_w_o _L_e_v_e_l_s The first is a basic level of capability that the first time user will encounter. This level is similiar to the spreadsheet systems and is menu driven. The creation of the data base structure is straight forward and easy to do. The data entry facilities are also easy to use unless your data- base structure exceeds a dozen or so fields. If you are working with many fields you will need to carefully oraginze the data entry. Otherwise dBASE IIs report generator provides quick screen generation. Secondly, dBASE II is a complete database handling language that is extremely versatile and powerful. With this language you have complete control over data entry, manipulation, and reporting. The capability to generate your own unique application program (command file) with dBASE II makes it a very power- ful system. . _E_x_p_e_r_t_i_s_e _R_e_q_u_i_r_e_d dBASE II is not for just anyone (contrary to claims made in the advertisements). To fully implement the capa- bility of dBASE II, programming expertise is required. Several books are now on the market to help the user implement dBASE II. Fox and Geller is marketing programs advertised to do the programming for you and to debug the ones you write. The University of Houston has a continuing education class on dBASE II (costs $300). Plus there are a number of(other programming aids on the market. _N_o _g_r_a_p_h_i_c_s The most serious feature lacking in dBASE II is graph- ics. Many of(the applications for dBASE II are suited to the enhancement of reports that include bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and combination piebar charts as pro- duced by dGRAPH from Fox and Geller. I dot have dGRAPH yet; but, I intend to get it soon. dBASE II, Another View ______________________________ By David Thompson (editor of Micro Cornucopia) . Duane has touched on the primary strength and problems of dBASE II. THe strength is its verastility, with just a few critical limitations (the limits of 64 variables and 32 fields are the two primary ones). dBASE II forces you to write very structured code which is really great, plus, adding a field, or a new heading, or whatever is a real joy. _H_o_w_e_v_e_r, The primary reason dBASE II needs all those aids is that it is a cluge. It has developed over many years, with a hodge podge of new commands. Each command has its own peculiarities. Some commands work with numeric data, othes with charater data or logicla data, and still others work with two or three of the above. In many case it is not immedi- ately obvious which works with which. Lets say you store characters in a variable. STORE "NEWNAME" TO TEMP Now you can use TEMP in place of the character string "NEWNAME". STORE TEMP TO ANOTHERTEMP Now ANOTHERTEMP contains the characters "NEWNAME". However, if you wante to call a file from the disk and you said: USE TEMP You would get the file named "TEMP" rather than the file name "NEWNAME". TO use TEMP as a variable with the USE com- mand, you would have to say: USE &TEMP Which turns TEMP int a macro. THis is just the tip of a very inconsistent iceberg. For instance, if you wanted to check to see if a record has been deleted you say: If* ... then do something . And if you wanted to see if a record had not been deleted you would probably say: If.NOT.* .... then do something Unfortunately this sends my copy into never-never land. The .NOT. operator is supposed to work with any logical (true/false) statement or value, but it will not work with the "*"operator. There is obviously something special about the way the "*" was created but with all these special case the whole this is impossible to document. Ninety percent of the problems I have had with dBASE II have been due to these little surprises. I/ve even had two identical lines of code, act in tow completely different ways even though both lines were in the same routine. Try debugging that! I went nuts the first time it happened! Now I am a little more wary. Since some dBASE commands are sensitive to data types, you`d think that you could specify the data types of(the varibles, so you have some error checking. You cant. Pascal with its rigid data structure is a refreshing imprgvement in this regard. _A _N_e_w _d_B_A_S_E? Ashton-Tate is circulating beta-test copies of a totally new data-base language. I hope th have kept the structured language approach and the easy to read command style, but I hope they have started over from scratch on the inside. I have yet to see anything else on the market that comes as close to meeting my need for a veratile, powerful, quick to write, easy to read, database handling language as dBASE II. That is why dBASE II is so popular. But when somet-thing is better does come along, I`m going to be first in line! Personally, I think Dave is too optimistic. Surely, the new database will be "upward compatiable" with the old one! -- Stephen Hemminger, Mitre Corp. Bedford MA {allegra,genrad,ihnp4, utzoo}!linus!sch (UUCP) linus!sch@mitre-bedford (ARPA)