[Coco] sculptor was Re: Magazines and Indexes

[Stephen H. Fischer]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Willard Goosey" <goosey at virgo.sdc.org>
To: "CoCoList for Color Computer Enthusiasts" <coco at maltedmedia.com>
Sent: Friday, July 10, 2009 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Coco] sculptor was Re: Magazines and Indexes

> On Thu, Jul 09, 2009 at 08:10:32PM -0700, Stephen H. Fischer wrote:
>> Hi,
>
> Hey, wuzup?
>>
>> At least it does not trash your data as "DataMaster", 2nd version did.
>>
> Data Master is one of the programs I'm still looking for. But if it
> has problems, then I'm not so intereted. OS-9 hard drives seem fragile
> enough as it is, without running buggy software.

The first DataMaster version was OK, as far as not trashing your data.
The second Version (3?) looked pretty but certain combinations would place
data from one field on top of another field.

If the source were available they could be fixed very quickly.

Sorting for both versions was very primitive and took a *very* long time.

--------------------------- 

Sculptor was the only CoCo / OS-9 database program I would trust any data
with.

There could be some "hacking" to improve the user interface, this would have
been worthwhile as the underlying data engine was reliable.

I am unsure if a later version was released for the OS-9 version, it had
many OS's that it would run on. I picked up the MS Dos version when it was
offered for a very low price from Frank Hogg.

>> You did learn how to get huge datasets into it, did you not.
>
> No, I haven't gotten that far. Just a little inventory of something I
> only have 4 of, just to see if it actually worked.
>
> To import data, I'd guess you'd need to write a proper input form. I
> just used the automatic form and report generators, so I don't know
> how flexible the form language actually is.


It has been many decades so the details are not fresh.

I remember that you read standard input lines, parsed them yourself  and
looked for a line like:

<<<<END OF DATA>>>>

Or whatever you decided to check for.

>> Typing it all in by hand would make anyone back away quickly.
>
> Being taught SQL make me back away from ALL database work for about a
> decade. I'm sort of easing my way back into it, splitting my database
> time between MySQL (yuck, SQL!), Paradox 3.5 (always my favorite), and
> now Sculptor.

Get a copy of Paradox 8 which I have, or perhaps Paradox 5 which I also
have.

Your time on Earth, mine for sure, is not worth wasting any time at all on
any other database program.

Once I got Paradox 5 (For Windows), it was so easy to use that it was a
"Paradox", that I stopped looking any further. I had gone through several
database programs including one from MS that the new version was so horrible
than the version I was attempting to upgrade from.

The Boland programmers were some of the greatest on the planet. They did a
brilliant job and produced better software than their competitors. It was a
crime that the bean counters could not keep the company afloat.

I think I also have a Paradox MS DOS Version , perhaps 3.5 also. It was some
what similar to Sculptor.

The Windows versions of Paradox are quite different from the MS Dos version
and very well worth stepping up to.

Paradox has a devoted group of professional (Using Paradox to make money)
users on line and I noted that Corel just offered a patch for something even
though development stopped years ago. A crime in my mind and many other
persons.

If you are interested in pleasure not *PAIN*, pm me and I will suggest where
to look for a copy of PARADOX, there might be a few still copies around.

> Of course, if I really want *PAIN*, I have dBase II for CP/M and
> TRSDOS... ;-)
>
>> (Note to self, where are my Sculptor files?)
>
> /nil? /dev/null? NUL:? NULL:?

Nope, on CD with all my other CoCo / OS-9 disks.

It's the Flex disks that I forgot to copy and probably are lost.

> Willard
> -- 
> Willard Goosey goosey at sdc.org
> Socorro, New Mexico, USA
> I search my heart and find Cimmeria, land of Darkness and the Night.
> -- R.E. Howard