Re: LIGHTSHIP???

From: Ernest Boswell <u4imcehb_at_apollo.wes.army.mil>
Date: 23 Nov 1993 19:14:24 GMT
Message-ID: <2ctneg$jst_at_Joanna.Wes.Army.Mil>

Dennis Moore (dbmoore_at_us.oracle.com) wrote:

: In article <1993Nov22.163459.152483_at_bbsnewsgate1.ads.com> Alan_Glass__ATG_at_bbsnewsgate1.ads.com writes:

: >has anyone ever heard of a software product called LightShip??
: >I think it allows a user to set up a virtual database.
: >
: >alan
: >***************************************************************************

Lightship (from Pilot Software) is a tools for building EIS-type applications. It allows you to access a variety of databases and other data sources (Excel, etc). The version I have worked with runs under Windows - I don't know if a DOS version is available. You don't actually set up virtual databases - it works in one of two ways.

1. You can run a query against your data source, and store the query but not the query results (i.e., you store the query parameters). This way, whenever you access the screen based on the query, the query is executed. Not as good as it seems - against large tables, the query can be sslllooooowwwww!!
2. You can run the query and store the results. Actually you don't always have a choice - it depends on which Lightship function you are using to access the data. The main problem I have with Lightship is that you can't build intermediate results with it. If you want to aggregrate a table, and then further manipulate the aggregrated table, you must do the aggregration in a view or temp table in your database, because while Lightship can access many data sources, it can't access itself. A better tool, in many instances, is Forests And Trees, from Trinzic Software. Forests And Trees accesses even more databases, with a very nice SQL interface. Either tool can use SQL*Net to get to remote databases.

Harry Boswell                         u4imcehb_at_apollo.wes.army.mil

Computer Scientist
Information Technology Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps Of Engineers

"My employer disavows any concurrence with my opinions, I'm quite sure" Received on Tue Nov 23 1993 - 20:14:24 CET