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                    *          DB/C Newsletter          *
                    *            March 1998             *
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                             News and Comments

As I watched Bill Gates on TV testifying to a committee of the US Congress,
I thought back to an earlier time when the government decided to go after
the computer monopoly of that day - IBM.  The US Justice Department wanted
to break up IBM because of its alleged antitrust actions in controlling the
computer industry.  The government failed in its effort - they called it
quits after more than ten years of litigation.

Some computer industry pundits believe that the antitrust action against
IBM caused the company to lose focus on their business - and thus they
missed the start of the personal computer industry.  In an attempt to play
catch up, they went outside for most of the software for their PC, including
three operating systems.  One was MS-DOS.  In their haste, they gave
Microsoft the boost they needed.  The rest is history.

Anyway, as I watched Bill Gates, I wondered if he would let the same thing
happen.  Would he keep his eye on the ball?

I quickly recognized a fundamental difference - the founder of Microsoft
still controls the direction of the company, whereas, at the time, IBM was
controlled by a third or fourth generation of management.

So my answer was yes, Bill Gates will keep his eye on the ball.  While he
is in control, the US government doesn't have a chance and Microsoft will
continue to be very competitive in the computer industry.

But what happens when Bill is gone?  More importantly, when will he go?

Back to DB/C - DB/C JX testing is in its final phase.  DB/C FS testing
still has quite a while to go.  And DB/C DX (aka DB/C Release 10) probably
won't begin beta testing until late summer (northern hemisphere summer).

I hope to see some of you at the UK DATABUS User's Group Meeting March 18
in Birmingham England.

                                                        don.wills@swc.com


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                    An example DB/C JX Applet using DB/C FS

The two new products in the DB/C family, DB/C JX and DB/C FS, can be used
together or independently.  The example we describe here is a DB/C JX Applet
using DB/C FS for accessing a DB/C index and data file.

DB/C JX can create either standalone applications or Java Applets that run
inside any web browser or web browser-like environment.  To create an Applet,
you execute the DB/C JX compiler with the -a switch.  Here is an example of
running the compiler from a command line:

  java com.swc.dbcmpjx.dbcmp ads1.prg -a

In this example, the ads1.class file that is created is a standard Java Applet.

The example program created for this article is an advertising program.  The
executable Applet, ads1.class, provides a simple listing service for 8 line
advertisements that are like the classified advertisements found in most
newspapers.  Initially, the ads1 Applet displays titles of the ten most
recently created advertisements.  The ten titles are displayed in menu fashion
inside a box that is displayed on a web page.  One title is always selected.
There is a menu bar at the bottom of the box.  By executing the Display menu
option, the full text of the selected advertisement is displayed.  New 
advertisements may be submitted by executing the Submit menu option.  Newly
submitted advertisements are only displayed after they have been reviewed by
the system administrator.  Ten more advertisement titles may be displayed by
executing the Next Page and Prior Page menu options.

To see the ads1.class in action, go to this web page:

     http://www.swc.com/dbcjxdemo.html

Be patient when you run this.  Currently, the DB/C JX support class library
(dbcjxl.jar) is not compressed.  On a 28800 modem connection it may take
a couple of minutes to load.

The advertisements themselves are stored in a file, adsfile.txt.  There is
one index named adsfile.isi.

The DB/C FS server provides file access to adsfile.isi and adsfile.txt
for the DB/C FS client - the ads1.class Applet.  The DB/C FS client and
the DB/C FS server communicate via TCP/IP.

One of the security features of Java enabled browsers is the limitation of
TCP/IP connections to only the server that was the source of the Applet.
In our example, www.swc.com is the web server.  Thus the DB/C FS server
software must also be running on www.swc.com.

The source program and the web page for this example can be found at
ftp.swc.com in the /pub/misc/jxsample directory.  The source program is
ads1.prg, its one include is adsdef.txt, and the web page is dbcjxdemo.html.
The dbcjx.cfg file is also found in this directory.  dbcjx.cfg the DB/C JX
configuration file that specifies the connection information for connecting
with the DB/C FS server.


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