TITLE

DB - The multipurpose database

VERSION

3.5

AUTHORS

David Ekholm
Sweden
email: david-ek@dsv.su.se

Marcin Orlowski
ul. Radomska 38
71-002 Szczecin
Poland
email: carlos@wfmh.man.szczecin.pl

DESCRIPTION

db is a small and fast database program that I wrote after having tested numerous other PD database programs and always found something lacking or irritating me. They might have dozzens of features not found in db, but they lacked font sensitivity and a standard GUI look and OS 3.0 behaviour.

My main need was to keep record on addresses and telephone numbers of friends and companies. Before v2.0 db was fixed to be just an address and telephone database, but that has changed. db was designed with user definable layout in mind from start. Since v3.0 I've added GUI-based database design to db that releaves the user from the work of specifying the layout by writing RFF code

When you use db you will notice that the user interface has been kept as compact as possible (few gadgets, menus and windows). Still the functionality in for example, searching and sorting is high. This is intentional. I prefer few buttons with high functionality than the opposite. The ASL requester is in my opinion an example of good design. It may look simple, but hides features like automatic drawer creation and filename completion. I hope you spend enough time with db to discover its hidden features.

FEATURES

A partial list of db's features include:

o Dynamic memory handling. Number of records and fields only limited by free memory.
o GadTool based. (Use fields of string, checkbox, cycle and text type)
o Support for multi-line fields through textfield.gadget
o Mouse and keyboard driven.
o User definable fields and layout.
o Multiple views of the same database.
o The views can be designed through a simple to use GUI.
o Commodore's Clipboard for flexible interaction with other programs.
o AppWindow -just drag and drop database icons on db to load.
o Online MenuHelp -Press HELP key when selecting a menu item.
o Font sensitive.
o ASL requesters for flexible loads and saves.
o Localized.
o ARexx support.
o Dial numbers using a modem or loudspeaker.
o WB and Shell usage with Commodore's template parsing.
o Fast and flexible find function using AmigaDOS patterns.
o Listview browser.
o Filter function.
o Fast and flexible sort function. Multiple sort orders can be specified.
o 'Export View' and two standard ASCII export features.
o Automatic ASCII import (tab-separated ASCII).

CHANGES:

Changes since previous release:

o Added TEXT type to view design toolbar.
o Added TEXTFIELD type to view design toolbar (however you can't change its height in editor yet).
o Added abbreviations to Shell template
o Trailing ':' is no longer added to selector window's title if the record label the title is based on, already has it.
o Edit view related strings are now localized
o New CLI/tooltype DEFPATTERN (def. "#?")
o New CLI/tooltype DEFREXXPATTERN (def. "#?.(db|rexxdb)")
o Toolbox items call be also accessed via F1-F5 keys directly from edit view window
o New menu item - reload current project
o New menu item - relaunch recently selected ARexx script
o Hungarian translation added. DB now supports 14 languages. Unfortunately, most of existing translations are a little bit outdated with this edition. Hope that will change with next release, when all will finish their holidays. For now you can use old catalogs so all newly localized strings will appear in english.

REQUIREMENTS

AmigaOS or compatible (release 2.05 (v37) or better)

PRICE

Shareware (USD 20, DEM 30, GBP 13, SEK 130)