Bargain Software Makers Offer 2 New Entries
Two companies that have made their reputations by offering bargain-priced software are Phillipe Kahn’s Borland International and Adam Osborne’s Paperback Software.
Kahn, as you may know, is the man who gave us Turbo Pascal, making a fortune while creating legions of programmers. Osborne, the very vocal force behind the rise and fall of the first portable computer, which bore his name, is these days focusing his marketing prowess on software.
One of Kahn’s many products is Reflex, a graphics-oriented database program that retails for $149.95
Meanwhile, Osborne’s Paperback Software has just released its long-promised database package VP-Info, which is compatible with both dBase II and dBase III and sells for only $99.95.
Reflex was favorably received when it was introduced a couple of years ago at $495 by a company called Analytica. But it didn’t gain a solid foothold in a database marketplace dominated by high-end products such as dBase II/III and Rbase 4000/5000.
Borland bought the company and dropped the price of Reflex to $100 for an introductory period, then raised it to the current price.
Reflex differs from VP-Info and other traditional-style database programs in important ways.
First, it operates entirely within the random access memory (RAM) of an IBM personal computer or 100% compatible machine, which makes it speedy but limits the size of the database you can create. After the 295 kilobytes of memory required by the program and operating system are used, you would have room for about 1,500 entries in a detailed business mailing list, for instance, with a computer equipped with 640 kilobytes of operating memory.
Larger database files can be created in the latest version of Reflex, 1.1, if your computer is equipped with an extended memory card.
One danger you have to guard against in a RAM-based data file is a power failure, which would wipe out substantial amounts of data if you don’t save it on a disk file frequently .
Second, because it is a graphics program, it requires a graphics display adapter, either the color graphics card or a Hercules monochrome graphics card.
If you use an enhanced graphics card, supported only by the new version, you can see 40 lines of data on the screen.
Reflex gives you five ways to look at your data, two of which can be on the screen in separate windows simultaneously. One view is the traditional form, as used for data entry in virtually every database program, in which each field of data is on a separate line and labeled--as in date, name, address, etc.
Variety of Views
Another view is a list composed of multiple rows of data arranged in topical columns. It is read from left to right, and each row represents a separate set of data.
A “crosstab” view shows you relationships and trends in numeric data. You could, for instance, compare the dollar volume of members of the sales force against each other month by month.
The graph view lets you choose which elements from the database to depict and gives you the choice of line, bar, stacked bar, scatter or pie charts. You can move the cursor to any point on the graph and instantly see in a separate window the data record from which it was drawn.
The fifth view is the report, which gives you both detail and summary data and allows you to quickly preview on the screen what the printed report will look like.
A wealth of functions are available for performing calculations on your data, including financial, mathematical and logical functions, as well as 16 different ways to calculate dates.
The paper-bound manual is thick, attractive and relatively easy to understand.
Paperback Software’s VP-Info comes in an equally thick manual with a heavy cardboard disk pack bound against the back cover.
It is not as inviting as the Reflex manual, being printed on thin paper in small type in gray ink.
If you already are an experienced user of dBase II, you’ll be well prepared to use VP-Info. Users of dBase III who rely on the “Assistant” menu-driven mode will find that feature missing in VP-Info. And if you don’t have an inkling as to how either of the dBase versions work, get out your reading glasses (for the small print) and prepare to do some serious study before you can make use of VP-Info.
Traps for the unschooled begin right away. There are no instructions on the screen to help you when you start the program. Pressing the F1 key will bring a series of help screens into play. But later, if you’re executing a command such as CREATE to design a database and press F1 hoping to get on-screen help, you’re out of luck.
Instead, you get tossed out of the CREATE mode, and it looks as if your efforts have been discarded. Actually, you can recover by typing SAVE and the name of the database you’re trying to create. It’s not a very friendly way to treat users, however, and you may find VP-Info frustrating unless you’re a knowledgeable and patient PC user.
There is a bright side to the program, however.
Experienced designers of dBase II and III application programs will find that they run faster in VP-Info because it contains something called a “compiler” that translates the program’s commands into speedy machine language that the computer can obey faster than the English-like commands that programmers use.
Use Existing Files
Another plus is that VP-Info can use existing data files created with either dBase II or III, each of which has a different structure.
Its typographical problems notwithstanding, the manual does an excellent job of taking the user through the program’s many commands.
A large sampling of data files is supplied on a second disk with the program to help in the learning process.
VP-Info is not an easy program to either praise or condemn. When dBase II, upon which it is based, was created a half-dozen or so years ago, it was superb. Today, it is severely outmoded by newer programs that give the user a lot more on-screen help as they struggle with their tasks.
Yet, there are undoubtedly more database applications being used out there everyday in dBASE II and III than in all the other database programs combined. That means there are a lot of expert dBase users out there for whom VP-Info is likely to be a must-see program.
Computer File welcomes readers’ comments but regrets that the author cannot respond individually to letters. Write to Richard O’Reilly, Computer File, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, Calif. 90053.
