Since DataPerfect has been considered “freeware” for quite a long time now,
I wonder just what does Lew Bastian get out of churning out update after
update with no remuneration. While I have been the beneficiary of earlier
versions of DataPerfect that permitted me to develop a number of job-saving
applications in the early to mid 90s, with the advent of true Windows-based
database applications available for little cost and which are relatively
easy to use, what can the actual benefit be for its use over applications
that are clearly designed to work within windows and virtually every
Internet-based application? Just curious.

 

Jerome R. Kinderman

Lodi, California

[EMAIL PROTECTED]

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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Brian Hancock
Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 5:20 PM
To: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group
Subject: Re: [Dataperf] New version of DP on the horizon...

 

It shouild be ready very soon...  

 

Regards

Brian

 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Juan A. Salhus R. <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  

To: Dataperfect <mailto:[email protected]>  Users Discussion Group 

Sent: Tuesday, June 10, 2008 6:20 AM

Subject: Re: [Dataperf] New version of DP on the horizon...

 

Hello, all, where i can download a DP 2.6Y 

regards

Juan Antonio Salhus

Chile

----- Mensaje original ----
De: Tim Rude <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Para: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group <[email protected]>
Enviado: lunes, 9 de junio, 2008 10:19:52
Asunto: Re: [Dataperf] New version of DP on the horizon...

Speaking for myself, I have no problems with these changes.

 

Tim Rude 

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Brian <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>  Hancock 

To: DataPerfect <mailto:[email protected]>  Users Discussion Group 

Sent: Monday, June 09, 2008 8:03 AM

Subject: [Dataperf] New version of DP on the horizon...

 

Hi everyone,

 

Lew has been working on a new version of DP with some improvements for
scripting, and I have had the pleasure of doing some preliminary testing.
Lew doesn't have easy access to the group mailing list and has asked me to
ask a few questions.

 

The major thrust of the new DOS based version 2.6Y is to support scripting a
little better, this allows it to perform better in web based applications,
and also desktop application which are driven by scripts.

 

The major change is that by default if you use the /EI switch to import data
from a transaction logs, then reports will output to STDOUT (often referred
to as printing to the console). For example if you run the DOS DIR command
at a DOS screen the output streams onto the console screen, and after DIR
has finished you can still read the output on the console. In contrast a DP
report printing to the screen only displays while DP is executing, and is
removed from the screen after you exit the report and before DP exits. There
are a couple of advantages to being able to output to STDOUT (or the
console). Firstly at present to use output from DP in another program you
first have to save it to a file in DP, and then open the file with another
program to use the data. It is currently not possible to pipe data from one
application into another. Many DOS users would be used to  piping the output
from DIR to the MORE command so you can view the output a page at a time.
There are many advanced text processing tools which could be used with DP
more quickly  and efficiently, such as AWK amd SED, etc.  The new version
allows piping to secondary processes.

 

A major advantage of using STDOUT for output from DP is that data can be
sent directly to a web browser or other internet application. At present you
need to save the output from DP into a file, and then with another program
read the file and output it to the web browser. This has two problems,
firstly, there are more steps to getting data to the browser and so is
slower, and secondly, until a report finishes and DP exits nothing can be
sent to the browser, so there is often a long period of inactivty until the
web browser's screen suddenly fills with data. (users often think a problem
has occurred with this delay). Using STDOUT, output from DP reaches the web
browser screen as it is output from DP, so even a long slow DP report can
present results to the user while it is still running.

 

So that is the background to the new version. Some of the changes are:

- the ;;W field output formatter will act on normal text fields and not just
multiline alphanumeric memo type fields

- from a /EI transaction log you can select for more that one report to run,
this is a bug fix from 2.6x. This has great benefits in that you can
compartmentalise reports. For example, you can have a simple report to add
data, another to delete data, and another to edit data, but only need one
report to view the output, With the current 2.6x version you must either
combine sections of the report the output into each of those operations, or
execute DP twice. Now you could specify the two reports as in #R:=3= #R:=10=
to run report number 3 and when that is finished run report number 10.

- the ;;W acts on all of the XML/XHTML  predefined entities,&  &amp;  "
&quot;  ' &apos; < &lt; > &gt;

- the ;;W transforms a single line break (carriage return) in a AxAy memo
type field to a <br /> instead of <BR> to conform more with XML and XHTML
standards.

- the ;;W transforms two consecutive line breaks in an AxAy memo field to
two line breaks <br /><br /> instead of a single <p>. This also makes it
more conforming to XML and XHTML standards.

- the ;;W transforms bold markup in an AxAy field to <b>...</b> in place of
<B>...</B> to make it conform to standards.

- The Beep function is to be removed

 

This leads to the questions, currently the ;;W output for an underlined text
in an AxAy field output as <I>....</I> which with HTML indicate italics
rather than underline. Lew believes there was a deliberate reason for this
rather than just an oversight, as you would normally expect the output to be
<u>....</u>. Lew wants to know if this would cause a problem to anyone
before he changes it.

 

The other question Lew has, in that with scripting using the /EI transaction
log there is no simple way to delete all records from a panel or to empty
the database. You can do these with reports, but in comparison to the inbuit
function to do this, reports are very slow. Lew would like to add two new
functions to the transactions logs. #DA =x= to delete all the records in
Panel numbered x, or #DT: , but before he does this he would like to see if
people would find it worthwhile.

Lew is getting very close to having a candidate for release, but if there
are any other bug bears, now would be a good time to air them and I will
pass them on to Lew.

 

Lew is also working on a Windows version of DP, but it is early days yet.

 

Regards

Brian

 


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