In keeping with this issue's theme of exploring database technology, I thought I'd share a secret with you. It is not a particularly big or terrible secret but rather a confession of prejudice---a prejudice I share with many of you who read this magazine.
It is an irrational reaction, I must admit. Like most DDJ readers, I'm happiest when I'm programming until the early morning hours. But for some reason, if you mention databases my love of programming is replaced with a sense of dread. My palms start sweating and my vision blurs. Nightmares appear of my personal Hell: eternity spent working on IBM's master payroll package with nothing but dBase II and a floppy-based CP/M machine. Shudder.
So, you ask, if database programming is terminally boring, why devote an issue to the topic? The answer is that it is the future of database technology that is exciting. Back in the early days of micros, the challenge was making our machines do useful work with only a cassette tape drive and 8K of RAM. These days we're facing an entirely different challenge: making the most of machines with optical drives and megabytes of RAM. One of these challenges is hinted at in this month's lead article. Elon Gasper and the crew at Bright Star Technology are convinced that animation is the next big wave for computers. I'm naturally skeptical, and my first thought was that talking heads reached their peak years ago with Steve Hall's Talking Moose for the Macintosh. Still, I've been wrong before. Anyone who's seen a demonstration of the DVI technology for CD-ROM, for example, must realize that we've only begun to explore the potential of mixing video and computers.
Moving on to the practical aspects of managing information, one of my problems with most database products is that they always seem to be more trouble than they're worth. A flat, text database is all I need, thank you. I don't want to program in a database language, and I don't want to spend hours wading through forms and menus. If you're of a similar persuasion, you might want to check out a product called Memory Mate. Originally a shareware product written by Michael Fremont, the program has recently been improved and remarketed by Broderbund. I've been using the product for a couple of years now and couldn't function without it. It doesn't overwhelm you with bells and whistles, but it does have two important features: it's simple and it's fast.
As a final note, I'd like to mention a new arrival in the category of multitasking windowing pageware, otherwise known as books. This last month I received a book that immediately went on the shelf within arm's reach---right next to my wellworn copies of Ray Duncan's Advanced MS-DOS and Peter Norton's Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC. The new book, by Thom Hogan, is called The Programmer's PC Sourcebook (Microsoft Press), and it lives up to the name. In 525 pages Hogan gives you all the detailed information and tables that you previously had scattered in a dozen volumes. We're talking hard data here; the pages are filled with tables listing everything from BIOS and DOS interupts to card connector pinouts, from data file formats to physical addresses for the PC's support chips. Best of all, Hogan does the unthinkable: he cites his sources. Highly recommended.
Tyler Sperry Editor