DBF

Hello ReBolek: Sorry. Don't have an immediate answer for that one... I bet that you will get some answers soon though. If you don't - that's one I actually need to work up myself - and I was planning on doing so by following C code that I have used a long time ago .......

I'm curious... If (and only if) it is appropriate, may you tell us why the need to read DBF with rebol? Mine needs would have to do with data imported in and out of MS-Access. regards Tim

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MS-Access is crap :-) Well, .dbf format is database format I grow up with. Starting with DBASE II many years ago, switching to Clipper (I am glad for it, as MS FoxPro is/was child's toy back at that time, while Clipper offered powerfull preprocessor, code block evaluation, RDD - replaceable database drivers, later also replaceable gui drivers, but Clipper 5.3 was dead end, and Computer Associates just wanted users to migrate to Windows Visual Objects - that's the product we use here) native index format for .dbf was .NTX It was not powerfull enough, so there were also other index format. E.g. native FoxPro - .cdx - the most used one, or also SixDriver .NSX format. Later company behind the SixDriver product leaved VO and released Apollo for Delphi. But there were also othe companies and index format, s MTX etc., etc. It was beaufty of RDD system, and just case of one include in your app, and you could switch to much more powerfull solution. Shame on MS, shame on FoxPro! It's a crap from designer's pov. I have full .DBF header description, so you could build native Rebol driver. I was looking into it. But you will have to solve many incompatibilities between various formats. I already looked at it some time ago. I think it is not worth the effort. If you can, buy yourself /Pro license, and go with some libraries. But then of course you lose cross-platform compatibility. There should be no problem of getting odbc drivers for dbf, but then we are talking 350 USD /Command price level. There is few tools/viewers to work with .dbf, very advanced ones. .DBF is however supported also by Excel, and natively supported by languages as Delphi, VO, Clipper, FoxPro, VB (IIRC, maybe indirectly), etc. My fried once laughed at me using .dbf. Well - we have 50MB beasts here - 128 or more collumns, 100K rows, and it still performs good enough. However - once you want to get to shared dbase app, better forget data integrity and speed. You will be probably better with some free or not so expensive SQL solutions - mySQL (lacking transactions, and so not suitable for us), or PostGres SQL. We use Novell Netware here however, and we wanted to stick with .dbf - as we have many supporting apps here. We found very efficient and powerfull database server for .dbfs - it is called Advantage Databse Server (http://www.advantagedatabase.com ), and comes from Extended Systems (IIRC Palm wanted to buy them before they went into financial troubles). We haven't believed success stories, such as Disney doing some 2mil recs daily succesfully using it, but we now fully believe in performance/price ratio ... verey good product, but of course far from being free ... If you still seek for Rebol native db, maybe there is some place for it, but then - it should be one script, using clear api. But be carefull, once you will be ready with your driver, you will want to add other and other features, and solution will become slow, possibly buggy and bloated, while still missing features as transaction support, etc. So, - think before you throw months of development thru the window. Today I would probably go with free and still improving mySQL database, supported thru various platforms, and free DocKimbel's mysql scheme. It will allow to concentrate on Rebol stuff, rather then reinventing the wheel. If you want Rebol solution - stick with plain text files, or something along the Elan's dbm engine (I don't know if it is still available though). Maybe something better could be thought of, but Holger mentioned some time ago there will be new port type, suitable for opened-file-operations. So, Holger, should ppl wait for it? (in your port description, it was mentioned as last, not yet implemented port type ...) -pekr-

Hi Olivier: I tried to access that site and got the following error message: Fatal error: Unable to open index.php in Unknown on line 0 Tim

-- Tim Johnson <[tim--johnsons-web--com]> http://www.johnsons-web.com

And small needs they are....

Hahahaha! I bet we could exchange war stories on THAT matter!

............

DocKimbel is my db God right now!

Is "The Official Guide" out-of-print? That would be sad. If so, I have it and source on CD. Regards -- Tim Johnson <[tim--johnsons-web--com]> http://www.johnsons-web.com

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Not so - for its intended purpose there is nothing as rapid that I have found on the market and thats in 8 years of database development. Sure its sucks in a few areas but I have yet to see a better IDE for a database system. Have you seen Access XP?

VB Support for .pdf is third party only. ;-)

MySQL since version 3.23 has supported transactions if you use the InnoDB table format. Transaction support is guarenteed from mySQL 4.0 up (still in alpha) Regards, James

No, I don't use such tools at all. I remember Access as opponent to Lotus Aproach. But - problem is, that I prefer stand-alone apps, not some installed bloated IDEs, with run-time support. I remember few years ago one customer leaving VO in favor of Access. Well, we laughed on the other end of phone - as those were the ppl calling themselves profi programmers ;-) Of course you can do many things with Aproach. But I somehow hate to use predefined templates. I don't like Windows dependency too. I mean - dependency upon product behavior - can you catch events in Aproach, so that enter or arrows will allow you to move between the fields and buttons, esc leaves screen, enter on browse enters form, etc.? I always have to laough, once I see primitive browser, featuring VCR like buttons for mouse click to go one record down, one record up, etc., as from user perspective, it is completyl nonsense ... Maybe I am just too much concentrated on "heavy" database stuff, where each unwanted user interaction with UI denerves our users ...

PDF? I was not talking pdf :-)

I know about it. I just contacted my friend heavily using both solutions, and he still prefers postGress. I recomended him to look at alpha mySQL 4.0 and he told me it is sometimes unstable, and reading thru docs you could find things like "if this doesn't work, try to comment this .." etc. stuff ... But I agree, that in many cases, mySQL is great dbms ... btw: as for Linux, you could probably even try Sybase 11 or so, - it is free, and features e.g. stored procedures ... (or so I was told) as for Rebol, it would be good if mySQL or any other database could be run from one .exe with some parameters (path to databases, configs), to be portable without installation :-) -pekr-

heh - think i had just read one to many pdf articles on the maillist and my poor overstressed brain said DBF: PDF .. ;-) James

Hi Olivier: Aha! It's there. What a great looking site! But alas, I am handicapped by being language challenged. (Can't read French, don't see an English option) My loss, I'm afraid, because it looks like it has much offer. Regards Tim

-- Tim Johnson <[tim--johnsons-web--com]> http://www.johnsons-web.com