What would a minimal MV system have?

#1

I write many VB.NET programs for MV databases, and I sometimes wish I
could have a simple, minimal, self-contained, stand-alone MV database
that I could distribute with my code on a CD (sort of like a .mdb file
in Access) - no complex installation required. Just
copy-onto-your-disk-and-go. That got me wondering a little.

1) Does such an implementation exist?
2) What would such a minimal MV system consist of?

I think it would need the following:

1) The MV file structure (dicts and data sections) to actually put in data
2) Recall/Access/English - I would want to do SELECTs, etc. via my VB
program. Also need it to generate MV reports. Otherwise I'd need to
teach Crystal Reports, etc. to understand MV data - not an easy task on
a minimal system.
3) All the conversion codes, so I could create dictionaries as I wish
(to do those SELECTs)
4) Obviously, some API so that I could work with the database in VB
(something like UniObjects, jBase Objex, etc.)

I don't think it would need the following:

1) DataBasic - since I would be working in VB.NET
2) Debugger - I'd be using the .NET debugger.
3) Editor
4) Proc - even though I do use it on MV systems, I could do without it
via EXECUTEs
5) Runoff
6) Spooler - printing done via the Windows spooler
7) Update processor - never used it

I'm not sure about TCL. There are some commands I might want (COPY,
CREATE-FILE, etc), but I'm still wavering.

Any thoughts about this?

Sholom

#2

OpenQM

--
================================
Simon Verona
Dealer Management Service Ltd
Stewart House
Centurion Business Park
Julian Way
Sheffield
S9 1GD

Tel: 0870 080 2300
Fax: 0870 735 0011

"sh" <shamada (AT) prupipe (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

I write many VB.NET programs for MV databases, and I sometimes wish I could
have a simple, minimal, self-contained, stand-alone MV database that I
could distribute with my code on a CD (sort of like a .mdb file in
Access) - no complex installation required. Just
copy-onto-your-disk-and-go. That got me wondering a little.

1) Does such an implementation exist?
2) What would such a minimal MV system consist of?

I think it would need the following:

1) The MV file structure (dicts and data sections) to actually put in data
2) Recall/Access/English - I would want to do SELECTs, etc. via my VB
program. Also need it to generate MV reports. Otherwise I'd need to teach
Crystal Reports, etc. to understand MV data - not an easy task on a
minimal system.
3) All the conversion codes, so I could create dictionaries as I wish (to
do those SELECTs)
4) Obviously, some API so that I could work with the database in VB
(something like UniObjects, jBase Objex, etc.)

I don't think it would need the following:

1) DataBasic - since I would be working in VB.NET
2) Debugger - I'd be using the .NET debugger.
3) Editor
4) Proc - even though I do use it on MV systems, I could do without it via
EXECUTEs
5) Runoff
6) Spooler - printing done via the Windows spooler
7) Update processor - never used it

I'm not sure about TCL. There are some commands I might want (COPY,
CREATE-FILE, etc), but I'm still wavering.

Any thoughts about this?

Sholom

#3

OpenQM can be loaded without any real installation?

I'm talking about something like an Access .mdb file. Just place it on
your disk, and your program can read and write to it. No fuss, no muss.

Is OpenQM close to that?

Simon Verona wrote:

Quote:

OpenQM

#4

sh wrote:

Quote:

OpenQM can be loaded without any real installation?

I'm talking about something like an Access .mdb file. Just place it on
your disk, and your program can read and write to it. No fuss, no muss.

Is OpenQM close to that?

Simon Verona wrote:
OpenQM

No but then again, Access only works because Windows and the dotnet

framework ship with drivers to read mdb files.

You are pretty much restricting yourself to databases that require no
services to be installed, and have all te drivers already installed on
Windows... I think that that gives you .mdb's, MSDE (though I think
that that needs a service installing though I could be wrong), dbase
and perhaps a couple of others - all low end databases.

What I meant is that OpenQM could be installed alongside your
application as an embedded database, so could be seamlessly installed
with your app.

Regards
Simon

#5

simon (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com wrote:

Quote:

sh wrote:

OpenQM can be loaded without any real installation?

I'm talking about something like an Access .mdb file. Just place it on
your disk, and your program can read and write to it. No fuss, no muss.

Is OpenQM close to that?

Simon Verona wrote:

OpenQM

No but then again, Access only works because Windows and the dotnet
framework ship with drivers to read mdb files.

You are pretty much restricting yourself to databases that require no
services to be installed, and have all te drivers already installed on
Windows... I think that that gives you .mdb's, MSDE (though I think
that that needs a service installing though I could be wrong), dbase
and perhaps a couple of others - all low end databases.

What I meant is that OpenQM could be installed alongside your
application as an embedded database, so could be seamlessly installed
with your app.

Regards
Simon

OK, I'll have to check out OpenQMs footprint. It does, however, give me
more that the minimum embedded system I theoretically would want.

Sholom

#6

simon (AT) aphroditeuk (DOT) com wrote:

Quote:

You are pretty much restricting yourself to databases that require no
services to be installed, and have all te drivers already installed on
Windows... I think that that gives you .mdb's, MSDE (though I think
that that needs a service installing though I could be wrong), dbase
and perhaps a couple of others - all low end databases.

There are quite a few "embeddable" databases on the market. A popular,
open source one is Firebird. There are also several others. Of course,
none of them are multi-value type databases.

Many would not consider these embedded databases "low-end", but does
"low-end" matter when it's a single user system?

Quote:

What I meant is that OpenQM could be installed alongside your
application as an embedded database.

The only potential problem is that you have to install OpenQM via its
installation routine. This can be somewhat automated via your
application's installation routine, but not as seamless as having your
routine install all the necessary files itself.

--
Kevin Powick

#7

Sholom:

I think Revelation would do nicely. It's probably perfect for your needs.

http://www.revelation.com/

Bill

"sh" <shamada (AT) prupipe (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

I write many VB.NET programs for MV databases, and I sometimes wish I could
have a simple, minimal, self-contained, stand-alone MV database that I
could distribute with my code on a CD (sort of like a .mdb file in
Access) - no complex installation required. Just
copy-onto-your-disk-and-go. That got me wondering a little.

1) Does such an implementation exist?
2) What would such a minimal MV system consist of?

I think it would need the following:

1) The MV file structure (dicts and data sections) to actually put in data
2) Recall/Access/English - I would want to do SELECTs, etc. via my VB
program. Also need it to generate MV reports. Otherwise I'd need to teach
Crystal Reports, etc. to understand MV data - not an easy task on a
minimal system.
3) All the conversion codes, so I could create dictionaries as I wish (to
do those SELECTs)
4) Obviously, some API so that I could work with the database in VB
(something like UniObjects, jBase Objex, etc.)

I don't think it would need the following:

1) DataBasic - since I would be working in VB.NET
2) Debugger - I'd be using the .NET debugger.
3) Editor
4) Proc - even though I do use it on MV systems, I could do without it via
EXECUTEs
5) Runoff
6) Spooler - printing done via the Windows spooler
7) Update processor - never used it

I'm not sure about TCL. There are some commands I might want (COPY,
CREATE-FILE, etc), but I'm still wavering.

Any thoughts about this?

Sholom

#8

and IIRC you can legally distribute single user runtime ** FOR FREE **

Bill H wrote:

Quote:

Sholom:

I think Revelation would do nicely. It's probably perfect for your needs.

http://www.revelation.com/

Bill

#9

Since OpenQM is Open Source, it should be possible to customize it.

Henry Keultjes

Simon Verona wrote:

Quote:

OpenQM

--
================================
Simon Verona
Dealer Management Service Ltd
Stewart House
Centurion Business Park
Julian Way
Sheffield
S9 1GD

Tel: 0870 080 2300
Fax: 0870 735 0011

"sh" <shamada (AT) prupipe (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:wlKxg.172$0e5.71 (AT) newsread4 (DOT) news.pas.earthlink.net...
I write many VB.NET programs for MV databases, and I sometimes wish I could
have a simple, minimal, self-contained, stand-alone MV database that I
could distribute with my code on a CD (sort of like a .mdb file in
Access) - no complex installation required. Just
copy-onto-your-disk-and-go. That got me wondering a little.

1) Does such an implementation exist?
2) What would such a minimal MV system consist of?

I think it would need the following:

1) The MV file structure (dicts and data sections) to actually put in data
2) Recall/Access/English - I would want to do SELECTs, etc. via my VB
program. Also need it to generate MV reports. Otherwise I'd need to teach
Crystal Reports, etc. to understand MV data - not an easy task on a
minimal system.
3) All the conversion codes, so I could create dictionaries as I wish (to
do those SELECTs)
4) Obviously, some API so that I could work with the database in VB
(something like UniObjects, jBase Objex, etc.)

I don't think it would need the following:

1) DataBasic - since I would be working in VB.NET
2) Debugger - I'd be using the .NET debugger.
3) Editor
4) Proc - even though I do use it on MV systems, I could do without it via
EXECUTEs
5) Runoff
6) Spooler - printing done via the Windows spooler
7) Update processor - never used it

I'm not sure about TCL. There are some commands I might want (COPY,
CREATE-FILE, etc), but I'm still wavering.

Any thoughts about this?

Sholom

#10

Henry:

But the open source QM doesn't run on Windows. :-( I'm thinking that's
what Sholom is looking for (but not necessarily).

Bill

<hbkeultjes (AT) gmail (DOT) com> wrote

Quote:

Since OpenQM is Open Source, it should be possible to customize it.

Henry Keultjes

Simon Verona wrote:
OpenQM

--
================================
Simon Verona
Dealer Management Service Ltd
Stewart House
Centurion Business Park
Julian Way
Sheffield
S9 1GD

Tel: 0870 080 2300
Fax: 0870 735 0011

"sh" <shamada (AT) prupipe (DOT) com> wrote in message
news:wlKxg.172$0e5.71 (AT) newsread4 (DOT) news.pas.earthlink.net...
I write many VB.NET programs for MV databases, and I sometimes wish I
could
have a simple, minimal, self-contained, stand-alone MV database that I
could distribute with my code on a CD (sort of like a .mdb file in
Access) - no complex installation required. Just
copy-onto-your-disk-and-go. That got me wondering a little.

1) Does such an implementation exist?
2) What would such a minimal MV system consist of?

I think it would need the following:

1) The MV file structure (dicts and data sections) to actually put in
data
2) Recall/Access/English - I would want to do SELECTs, etc. via my VB
program. Also need it to generate MV reports. Otherwise I'd need to
teach
Crystal Reports, etc. to understand MV data - not an easy task on a
minimal system.
3) All the conversion codes, so I could create dictionaries as I wish
(to
do those SELECTs)
4) Obviously, some API so that I could work with the database in VB
(something like UniObjects, jBase Objex, etc.)

I don't think it would need the following:

1) DataBasic - since I would be working in VB.NET
2) Debugger - I'd be using the .NET debugger.
3) Editor
4) Proc - even though I do use it on MV systems, I could do without it
via
EXECUTEs
5) Runoff
6) Spooler - printing done via the Windows spooler
7) Update processor - never used it

I'm not sure about TCL. There are some commands I might want (COPY,
CREATE-FILE, etc), but I'm still wavering.

Any thoughts about this?

Sholom