Conference hydra::amiga_v1

195.0. "SUPERBASE-Personal" by CRASSO::ZABOT (Marco Zabot-Adv.Tech.mgr-Turin ACT) Mon Dec 01 1986 12:17

	I've received my copy of SUPERBASE-Personal from Superprecision Ltd.
They charged me #130.49. It contains a floppy, a manual and a dongle key to be 
inserted in port #2. It must stay there all the time. 

	Order handling has been very good ( telephone order, shipment two day's 
later, charged to my EuroCard ( Master Card in USA)).

	I've been previously exposed to the DEMO version, which I think can be 
freely distributed. The version I got is 1.0. After you register they give you 
a USER NUMBER for subsequent support. 

	Documentation. Good shape. Easy to read, but i think it's not very 
comprehensive. The manual is mainly tutorial ( with examples from the disk ) 
but lack a full explanation of the functionning of each command.

	Performance seams to be good. ( I got it only two days ago). 

	Some details. It's a regular DATABASE program. It handles as many 
files you want, with up to 999 ( !! ) index files for each data file. Three 
mode of presenting data: Record mode ( one field of record per line), Form 
mode ( you can move your fields around your screen, which is a lot larger then 
the phisical screen , haven't check yet how much), Table mode: one record per 
line ( horizontal scroll if it doesn't fit). In Table mode you are allowed to 
squeeze your data by moving columns closer ( or further away). In all case you 
can select fields you want to work with.

	As all RDB you can JOIN files in either queries or updates. There is a 
limitation in your expression for join or update criteria of 512 bytes. 
Haven't had chances to test if this is enough or not.

	A record field may be as usual text, numeric or date. Or it may be 
EXTERNAL. This is the best feature. When you say it' s external you fill it 
with a path name. The path name may refer to another drive ( I got two 
drives). If the file is an IFF the immage may be displayed by clicking the 
rightmost gadged ( a camera). More that one 'external reference' may be 
present in one record ( as many fields as you want may be external ). Once you 
are in picture mode we may browse the immages of the record itself or browse 
the immages of the same filed on other recors ( first, last, next, prior).

	An exeternal reference may relate to a text file, which will be display
the same way as the pictures are ( not tried yet).

	If someone has tried in the past SUPERBASE on C64, this one is lacking 
the 'batch' ( programming)  environment. And you are not allowed to add 
information to your form ( Titles, legenda, etc..). The missing features are 
available on their not advertised ( at least I never see an add on it ) 
SUPERBASE PROFESSIONAL. They give special discount if you are a registered 
user of PERSONAL. ( Do they want you to buy ALWAYS both ???)

	Conclusion. Expensive. Good interface ( complete intuition usage)
I was especting a little more ( the Professional capability I think). Very 
good the integration of RDB with images archiving.

marco