Capabilities: RTF editing, Graphs, flat-file database

[Richard Gaskin]

jbv wrote:

>...when do you guys decide to use an SQL database instead of a single
> file loaded in memory of a flat-file database ?
...
> AFAIR, about 2 years ago, someone mentioned on the MC list using a well
> indexed flat-file DB of about 700,000 records, with no disturbing delays
> in searching & sorting...

My WebMerge product is effectively a specialized RAM-based database.  It 
  generates static HTML pages from the exported contents of nearly any 
database, spreadsheet, or other columnar data.

In the last couple years the program has become popular among affiliate 
marketers, and many of these use product data feeds supplied by their 
vendors.  I have many customers who regularly process 50,000 records at 
a time, and all I hear about it how fast it is. :)

(If you don't mind the blatant self-promotion, some of these user 
comments are posted at 
<http://www.fourthworld.com/products/webmerge/gallery.html>).

Given the nature of the program, I didn't really have a choice of how 
the data is stored.  But after honing performance over the years I've 
gained the confidence to use simple blocks of text with chunk 
expressions in many other apps as well, leaving things like MySQL for 
multi-user databases (record-locking is a beautiful thing when you need it).

-- 
  Richard Gaskin
  Fourth World Media Corporation
  Developer of WebMerge: Publish any database on any Web site
  ___________________________________________________________
  Ambassador at FourthWorld.com       http://www.FourthWorld.com