[Coco] OS-9 Databases

[Frank Swygert]

See if you can locate a copy of "CoCo Family Recorder".  It's a very 
specific genealogy database, but was written in DECB. I used a lot of 
little tricks to get it to run fast, many thought it was a machine 
language program, but only partially due to speed -- I "hid" the DECB 
program listings by using a little trick to make them appear on the disk 
as ML and they wouldn't load and list. It was easy for an experienced 
CoCo person to get around. I did it not to hide the code from someone 
who knew what they were doing, but to prevent the casual user from 
messing with the code and causing themselves grief. The program was 
translated over to BASIC-09, but I didn't do it, another fellow did 
(with my permission). I sold both versions for a short time.

One of the tricks that made it so fast was that records were pre-defined 
and written to disk. Think of it as a stack of blank, numbered forms. 
The forms were then indexed to each other by relation by record number. 
Since the records were always in the exact same order they were quick to 
find. The only drawback to this method was possible disk errors could 
corrupt the whole database. I pointed this out in the docs and 
recommended keeping at least two backups of the data disks, and rotating 
them.

If anyone has a copy of either the DECB or BASIC-09 versions of these 
programs they have my permission to put them up on the list archive 
site. Just make sure they have all the files and credits, and get put in 
the FARNA folder. Would be nice if someone could scan the docs and put 
them in a PDF file as well... or get me a copy of the docs and I can do 
that. I no longer have copies of any of my CoCo software.

-- Frank Swygert Editor - American Motors Cars Magazine www.amc-mag.com