Fabio, Years ago some of saw a preview of a windows version of DP. Maybe Ralph remembers that meeting, maybe someone else does. At the time the idea was that the Windows program could "use" DP as a user but that it would be almost impossible to create a Win version of the actual program that 'compiled' the database, that was going to have to remain a DOS function. My understanding is that that rudimentary demo we saw was destroyed at some point, never to resurface.
The market for "home user" databases turned out not be substantial enough to support products in the market. There were quite a few that had some fine capabilities, I don't remember their names but Q&A was one. Today I suspect that there would be even less of a market; I strongly suspect that if there was a market there would be products competing for a share. I don't like to say it but I fear that the days of DP are over, we're the leftovers struggling to hold on. Eventually we too will be history. Don *Don FriedmanProfessionalRecords.Com LLCPRS Data Systems* *205 S Main StreetPittsburgh, PA 15215412-784-1600 - 1-800-PRS-FILE 412-784-1615 Fax* On Mon, Sep 22, 2014 at 4:41 PM, Fabio Muller <[email protected]> wrote: > Hello Folks , I did some research about this topic some time ago and I > would like to share my thoughts with Patrick and you all > > On 12/09/2014 01:00, Patrick Riley wrote: > >> Danny, a 32-bit and/or 64-bit version of DataPerfect is anything but a >> bad idea. It would >> be a God send, extend DataPerfect's usefulness for the foreseeable >> future and put an >> end to the never ending questions and issues about running on >> DataPerfect on modern >> operating systems. >> > > Windows 7, 8 and future versions (64-bit) doesn't run 16-bit programs (DOS > or Windows)anymore, thanks to WoW64 Subsystem. There are some rare > exceptions but these are embedded into WOW64.dll and just these are > accepted and were included by MS themselves, mainly some Old installers. > So, the only way to get 16-bit running on these Windows is through > virtualization. Thanks, again, Jos for provide that for us. Obviously there > are some disadvantages in virtualization but with the processor power > nowadays things are almost the same as a dos computer and is a good way to > get pretty good things going on. 32-bit programs can run, but you have to > recompile your source with 32 bit version of the compiler, which sometimes > is not available, and make a lot of adjustments to make it really 32 bits > (check here a small preview of this: http://www.digitalmars.com/ > ctg/dos32.html). Forget about 64-bit because there is no 64-bit in MS-DOS > (and never will). > > > I believe DataPerfect was written in Forth. There are a number of Forth >> compilers (and >> interpreters) available for x86 systems. Here's one list: >> http://www.dmoz.org/Computers/Programming/Languages/Forth/ >> Implementations/ >> > Here's another overlapping list: >> http://www.forth.org/compilers.html >> >> > yes, according to the legend, DP was written in Forth and if you know > Forth you know that is a one way path, if you have the source and you were > the guy who created it, you have a chance of get the expected results. To > complicate a little bit more it seems that Mr.Bastian used some modified > version made by himself (the man is a monster!) so doesn't expect great > changes because the staff capable of doing it is quite small. > > On the surface, this would seem to be doable. The fact that it hasn't >> been may meant here's more to it. Maybe Lew could comment?> >> Since Lew has made a number of new DataPerfect version compilations, I'd >> guess there >> are no copyright issues. >> > > Probably this was the Fatima's 3rd secret, Mr.Bastian is the only one who > knows exactly what the deal was. We know that he is allowed to do a lot > things but we didn't know what he can't do and sincerely I don't care as > the ball is still rolling and rolling well. Reminding that Novell, at those > times, was something bigger than it is nowadays and just the fact that they > allowed him to make something was a hit for the user base then. In 2012, I > talked with one of their lawyers because I wanted to publish the ad video > about DP on youtube and they were very open, in fact they treat as kind of > abandonware but you know , while it doesn't mean profits, no trouble at all. > > I run DataPerfect on 64-bit Windows 7 Professional under VMware which >>> >> works but >> always creates extra work in interacting with other programs and >> functions outside >> of my VMware virtual environment. I'd be a _huge proponent_ of a native >> 32-bit version >> of DataPerfect (which would run on 64-bit operating systems). A 64-bit >> version would >> be even better. >> > > Remember that DP was built to run on 16-bit,MS-DOS machines , as I said > above just to rebuilt to 32 bit would require a great effort. If you asked > my opinion and I had already said that, I would love to have a Linux > version. I know that there is a very small chance of having such a thing > because it would affect the entire Multi-billion dollar DB industry so > heavily that someone would have to disappear from the planet in order to > continue living( My DB Consp. Theory !). Well in fact, it wouldn't affect > the industry that much but, it would bring back the home user programmer to > the DB world (It wasn't necessary to have a Bs on computer science to build > a DB in the early days). Today this niche is completely abandoned. > > >> I'd like to see DPorder added to your list of components. I can only >> use the current >> version of DPorder with small DataPerfect projects getting a >> out-of-memory error once >> I reach a fairly small number of panels and/or reports. Memory >> shouldn't be an issue >> in a 32 or 64-bit version. >> >> Cheers for your suggestion. >> >> Pat Riley >> 505-750-4728 >> >> hummm strange, May be some VMware problem. Could try with VDOS to see if > you get the same results ? Could be just a VM config problem. > >> >> >> At 10:34 AM 9/11/2014, you wrote: >> >>> Content-Language: en-US >>> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; >>> boundary="_000_613B408086EE08439B9DFC97BC58DF083B8F35E7MAIL1museumafri_" >>> >>> Dear all, >>> >>> Working with DataPerfect under 64-bit OS is a problem that has to be >>> solved through e.g. VMPlayer. >>> Unfortunately, although once promised, a Windows version of DP does >>> not exist. >>> I had the same problem with 16-bit QBasic programs, but now >>> recompiling them with QB64 was a straightforward solution. >>> I suppose DataPerfect (with its additions as DPEXP and DPIMP, MCREATE >>> and STE-MGR) and Shell with the Editor [for shell-macros]) are written >>> in a kind of C language… >>> I wonder if there is no 32-bit version of the compiler for that >>> language… >>> This could be a solution for the 64-bit environment. >>> >>> Of course one needs to have the correct compiler and the source. >>> I know that Lew Bastian had the source code for Dataperfect but maybe >>> copyrights are preventing a recompilation?? >>> >>> A bad idea? >>> >>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------ >>> Danny Meirte >>> curator Herpetology >>> Royal Museum for Central Africa <http://www.africamuseum.be/> >>> Department of African Biology >>> Leuvensesteenweg 13 >>> 3080 Tervuren, Belgium >>> Tel.: +32 2 769 56 29 Fax : +32 2 769 56 42 or +32 2 767 02 >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Dataperf mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://lists.dataperfect.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dataperf >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Dataperf mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.dataperfect.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dataperf >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Dataperf mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.dataperfect.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dataperf >
_______________________________________________ Dataperf mailing list [email protected] http://lists.dataperfect.nl/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/dataperf
