Is a GS database wanted?

[ken@tiamet.uucp (Ken O Burtch)]

Hi everybody.

A couple of weeks ago I decided to toy with an Apple IIGS database.
With all the source code from my Pegasus Pascal precompiler, I realized
I could adapt it pretty easily to this new project.  After a week,
I had a pretty decent little database, albeit with no desktop.

My little relational database features:

   o number of records only limited by disk space
   o up to 32 fields (this can be raised, if necessary)
   o 4 basic field types
   o some checksum protection
   o optional password
   o record caching (loads records into memory for faster processing)
   o GS/OS support -- you can save you work to Mac disks
   o ascending/descending/random sorts
   o basic report generation and mail merge (text files only -- so far)
   o ASCII export: you can load databases into ByteWork's QuickCalc
   o a query language with 16 built-in functions (average, count, upper,
     proper, sgn, ...) and variables.  You can, for example, locate every-
     one in a database with identical last names by typing:
     last_name( person_x ) = last_name( person_y ) and person_x # person_y

It's all written in Pascal, so we're not talking about any blazing speed
for these operations, but they work.

Since the work was going pretty smoothly, I've got three questions:

1. Would anybody want an Apple IIGS database?
2. What features do you think are mandatory?  (What kind of field types?
   Maximum number of fields?  Built-in functions?  Blah Blah Blah ...)
3. How much would you be willing to pay for it?

If there's enough interest, I'll go ahead and clean it up, add the desktop,
and tighten up the slow parts with assembly language.  I'm anxious to hear
your thoughts.

Our news feed is often overloaded and drops articles, so email me if you
want to make sure I get you message.  If your mail bounces, try my
alternate address ncrcan!coutts!tiamet!ken@uunet.ca.

-- 
Ken O Burtch: Quest/Hoard, Pegasus Pascal, DrawTools : Pegasoft
(New email address -- coming soon.)BBS:905-562-4745  : R.R.#1 Honsberger Ave
Bio: 28;BSc,UI,Lang,Games;Toons,Elves,SF,Pizza;Xian  : Jordan Station,ON,Canada
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