All this talk about DataBases

[Sarah Reichelt]

> Guess I'm going to start up another great controversy. Again I'm
> hearkening back to my HC days. When it was first released, one of its
> main claims to fame was the question as to whether or not it WAS a
> database. Certainly, it had all of the attributes and features of
> one. Even with SE30s as a machine; and, with some 2,000 records/
> cards, HC performed acceptably fast considering the simplicity of its
> implementation and subsequent use. So, my question is: has RR done
> such a poor job at duplicating this functionality that we cannot get
> along without specialty DBs in MOST instances? If it has, then at
> what record level must we consider using these other DBs? I realize
> that there ARE many applications that will need a greater capacity,
> but not the average one created by the "average" Rev user. I'd sure
> like to know.


HyperCard excelled at the on-card-per-record sytle of data storage.
Revolution is not so good at that. However there are many other
options before you need to consider using an external database.

I like having a hidden stack with my data in fields on the stack.
If the fields are going to hold a very large amount of data, then
consider using custom properties or text files.

One good way of transferring a HyperCard database to Rev is to export
the data from each card into a text file with each card's data taking
one line of the export. Pick some delimiter to separate the fields and
if your data contains linefeeds or tabs, replace them with some other
symbol. Then Rev can read this file into memory and operate on it at
great speed. Coming from HC, you will love the filter command :-)

Cheers,
Sarah