Re: Please recommend me a DB!

In <01bb3c81.f9740a80$6f012bc7_at_thinkpad>, V. Lanny Rosicky <lanny_at_terren.com> writes:
>
>On Sunday, May 05, 1996, Bayard wrote...
>> Is there a document available that compares and contrasts the different
>> packages available? I have to recommend a database for my work within a
>> week. The project at hand requires a linking, relational database to
 run
>> under os/2 or windows nt, preferably accessable by a large number of
 users
>> on a LAN. I'm not sure of the volume of the data involved. Easy of
 use
>> is a big plus. An accompanying programming language that works well is
>> also a plus. Are the programs like paradox, foxpro, and dbase for
 windows
>> pretty much all the same? when does a more powerful system like oracle
 or
>> sybase become necessary?

File sharing databases like Base, FoxPro etc. becomes very quickly too weak for multiuser systems! This is even more obvious when these systems do a lot of updating in the databases. Basically, dBase, FoxBase, Paradox (without InterBase) etc. is single-user systems. Since there is no "database processing power" on a file-server, there is no (or almost none) centralized record-locking, table locking, security etc. This has to be handled by the workstation themselves, and they don't "co-operate" with each other. A very inprecise rule says "3 users - use a client/server database".

Don't even think about non-SQL databases like Progress. Pick Progress and you're stuck ! No support from 3:rd party vendors etc....

BTW - use an SQL database. This is _industry standard_ for realtional databases. ODBC support should be considered.

Application development - depends on your skills and the time/quality ratio. I used to do a lot of programming in C (OS/2 Presentation Manager Sybase clients), but C is not a fast way to produce programmes. I'm not very comfortable with "4:th generation languages", as they seem to be _too_ coarse. When I used them I had do do some C programming anyway. On the other hand - my applications wasn't only accessing Sybase, but operating systems, transaction monotors, terminal emulators, BLOB processing etc... as well. Nowadays I use C++ and SmallTalk a lot. I use prefabricated class-libraries for relational databases (and other things like user interface too...), as well as writing my own class libs.

A suggestion - try Delphi. It has built-in classes for many SQL-RDBMS flavors. VisualBasic works too - though it's not object oriented.

Application development tools is a lot of religion, but not so much facts really. Try out and find what's best for you. You can even use some application macro languages to access RDBMS, for example Excel Basic, Word Basic or Lotus Script.

>>
>> Please email me any thoughts, it is greatly appreciated.
>>
>It is an impossible task! You are missing several criteria for you
>decision - by your post
>you indicate that you haven't done much research. Number of users and
>workstations as well as the expected price category are important
>aspects.
>
>If I had to do it in a week based on the info you gave us, I would flip a
>coin between Watcom SQL and DB2. If I had more time, I would investigate
>offerings from Informix - they may have something which would fit the
>bill.

Agree. DB2/2 has some neat options. A DB2/2 database under OS/2 can in an easy way co-exist with another DB2 system under AIX or even MVS (now we're talking DATABASE SERVERS ). This could be considered if working in an organization using lots of IBM mainframe stuff.
Watcom has other pros - great scalability. I use Watcom SQL myself for development purpouses - it's cheap (single-user version), yet still a true client/server DBMS. It also has ODBC as native API.
MS SQL Server under NT. This is a close relative to Sybase SQL Server. Informix has a lot of things going - a new objectrelational database system, that allows storing objects (very complex data, containing its own processing methods) in a relational way (using tables).

magnus.pettersson_at_powerage.se Received on Wed May 08 1996 - 00:00:00 CEST