Another Revolution Success Story

[Brian Yennie]

>> A physician in our area had a need for an application which could 
>> easily import patient data from a text file (multiple rows of 
>> comma-delineated data).  It was a simple task, using Revolution, to 
>> open the file and read the data to a field.  Subsequently a "model" 
>> card was cloned and the appropriate data sent to various fields on 
>> each card. Over a thousand records were created this way in a few 
>> minutes.The only stumbling block involved my forgetting that a 
>> standalone cannot modify itself.  No matter though; I merely created 
>> an invisible "starter app" that immediately opened a data stack in 
>> the data folder.
>> The application works "as advertised".
>> The doctor was impressed that it was possible to do this in a few 
>> hours!
>
> String handling apps DO seem to be Rev's forte.

Speaking which, thought I'd share this one as another positive piece: 
for my current project I needed to do a large data conversion over the 
weekend. SQL database to new, upgrade, totally incompatible new 
database. About 50,000 records over 20 tables, some 50+ foreign key 
constraints translated to about 50 new tables. Using off-the-top of my 
head scripts in a Rev stack riddled with fields full of conversion 
tables, it was real dirty, but it worked- and the entire system was 
converted and proofed in a weekend by 2 people. And the rules were 
icky, along the lines of:

"Maintain the order of records in the old system which alphabetized 
things in the software, but makes no record of it in the database"

"Delete records that contain the word XXX, and oh, there are probably a 
few typos"

"Change the 3-level structure to N-levels, where anything with the 
words XXX or YYY means that it belongs under the previous record 
containing ZZZ... and by previous we mean the aforementioned 'order'".

Etc- new fields, new relationships, new constants, re-created keys, 
yeck, yeck, yeck...

  I NEVER would have been able to do it in any other language that I 
know of - kudos!

- Brian