June 10, 2008
I'll give you one benefit of DP that stands out for me.
I have three databases at least that include genealogical type
relationships - track families. In DP it is easy to set up a basic name
and address panel, link it to a spouse panel and/or a parent/child panel
in a recursive link. I've tried to duplicate that in a modern Windows
base, and after seeking help as best I could find my database would have
to have or create a duplicate of my first panel to keep that connection
permanently, or I would have to run some kind of report every time I
wanted to track some parent-child relationship.
I'm not suggesting that the Windows based programs can't do the task.
It's just that it is on the order of ten times as hard and far more disk
space costly to do it. For a wide variety of tasks I found that using
such programs instead of DataPerfect was like using a private helicopter
instead of walking to my next door neighbour.
FWIW, I would be glad to give a "shareware" contribution to Lew, if
there were available a way to do it!
Don Codling
WP 12.0.0.602
Windows XP home, SP2
256 MBytes RAM
Jerome R. Kinderman wrote:
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] <mailto:[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 Users Discussion Group
<mailto:[email protected]>
*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] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>>
Para: Dataperfect Users Discussion Group <[email protected]
<mailto:[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 Hancock <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*To:* DataPerfect Users Discussion Group
<mailto:[email protected]>
*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,&
& " " ' ' < < > >
- 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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