************************************* * * * DB/C Newsletter * * March 1999 * * * ************************************* News and Comments Java is quickly becoming the lingua franca of the computer world. More specifically, the Java Virtual Machine is truly becoming a universal computer execution engine. Just as with DB/C JX, there are other compiler products compiling various programming languages into .class files that run on any Java Virtual Machine. Robert Tolksdorf of the Technische Universitat of Berlin has put together a list of over 60 programming languages (including DB/C JX) that can be compiled into Java .class files. His list can be found at: http://grunge.cs.tu-berlin.de/~tolk/vmlanguages.html When DB/C DX is released in May, the method of getting support for each DB/C product will be provided primarily via the Internet. There is some misunderstanding about DB/C support, so in this month's newsletter we detail how DB/C support will work in the future. To keep you updated, here is the status of each of the new DB/C software products: DB/C DX 10.0 is now in full beta testing. JX 2.0 is also still in beta testing. The current production release of DB/C JX is 1.0.2. The current production release of DB/C FS is 2.0.5. DB/C 9.1 is the current release of traditional DB/C. All purchases of DB/C 9.1 after March 1, 1999 will receive a free upgrade to DB/C DX 10.0. We've also included more Frequently Asked Questions in this newsletter. Again, if you have any useful questions or insights to contribute, please forward them to us. don.wills@swc.com ***************************************************************************** DB/C Software Support Policies In the past, Subject, Wills & Company has provided support for DB/C to essentially whoever asked for it. This support was provided in the form of telephone conversations, FAX messages, and more recently, email messages. It was typically provided directly by one of the programmers in the DB/C group. With the addition of 2 new products (JX and FS), the knowledge that any one person has is insufficient to provide decent support. And while we have kept the price of DB/C constant for many years, the cost of providing good support has continued to rise. So several changes are coming. A new support policy was implemented for DB/C JX and DB/C FS when they were released. This support policy was essentially that email and fax support for 12 months were included with the purchase price, but that telephone support was a "Premium Support Option". At the end of the 12 month support period, an additional 12 months of support may be purchased. We are calling this a subscription for support. Additionally, with the release of DB/C JX and DB/C FS, we announced a new software upgrade policy. The policy is that all software upgrades (including major release upgrades) are available at no cost to customers who are currently covered by a support subscription. Because DB/C JX and DB/C FS were new products, we have not enforced the email/fax-only aspect of the support policy. These products have stabilized to the point where the number of new bugs reported is much less than what it was during the first months of their release. Thus beginning on July 1, 1999, we will enforce the no telephone call aspect of the support policy. Telephone support is available with the Premium Support Option. This is purchased separately. See the DB/C area of www.swc.com for information about the Premium Support Option. Recognizing that early purchasers of DB/C JX and DB/C FS should be rewarded for their patience for working with immature software, the initial 12 month support subscription will be extended at no cost through March 31, 2000 for those customers who purchased DB/C FS and DB/C JX prior to March 31, 1999. DB/C DX will be covered by the same support policy when it is released in the near future. You will be able to upgrade your existing license of DB/C 9 or older to DB/C DX. This upgrade to DB/C DX includes the 12 month support subscription. Upgrade prices will be announced when DB/C DX is released. DB/C 9.1 will continue to be supported as it is now until 12 months after it was purchased. After June 30, 1999, DB/C 9.1 will only be available by special request. We recognize that there have been some delays in responding via email in the last few months. We will be implementing several changes in the near future the will hopefully alleviate all of these delays. In summary, we do understand that support is key to the success of a mission critical software product like DB/C. We will work diligently to make sure that the email support you receive in the future will be as good or better than the support you have received in the past. ***************************************************************************** DB/C Frequently Asked Questions Question: Why is the sound made by the BEEP statement almost inaudible when running DB/C 9.1 for Win32 under Windows 95 and Windows 98? Answer: Replicating the good old fashioned beep sound in Windows has turned out to be harder than one would suspect. For DB/C 9.0 for Windows 95/NT, the BEEP statement was implemented using the Win32 MessageBeep function call. After several complaints from customers, in DB/C 9.1 we changed the DB/C runtime so that it called the Win32 Beep function call (MessageBeep and Beep are similar but not quite the same). Recently, we've had more complaints about how it sounds under Windows 98. So we have very recently changed it again. For Windows 95 and 98 only, BEEP now causes an old MS-DOS (non-Win32) IO port output action to occur. However, for Windows NT, the Win32 Beep function call is still used because IO port output is not allowed. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question: How can I convert my DB/C programs to use SQL instead of traditional DB/C files? What problems might I encounter? Answer: DB/C DX, DB/C JX and traditional DB/C support SQL with the SQLEXEC, SQLMSG and SQLCODE statements via dynamic SQL. The eventual interface to the SQL database engine is done using ODBC, JDBC or a proprietary interface in UNIX. Technical details about how SQLEXEC works can be found in the DB/C Programmer's Reference manuals, all well as in the June 1993 and the October 1994 DB/C Newsletters. Old newsletters can be found at the Past Issues of the Newsletter link on the DB/C Newsletter page at www.swc.com. From experience, we would like to warn you that there are some major problems you will run into if you attempt a conversion to SQL. First, the conversion itself is quite complicated. There are significant differences between the two file systems. Some differences may actually cause you to remove features and functionality from your DB/C programs. Because of the way SQL works, you can't just replace each READ/WRITE statement with one SQL statement. Major restructuring of your program is typically required. More importantly, performance may also be a problem. At best, even with restructuring of your programs, expect to run 3 or more times slower when using SQL compared to the DB/C file system on the same hardware. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Question: One of our sites has installed 2 new Win95 workstations on their Novell network. The DB/C 8 DBC.EXE interpreter runs fine. However when the DB/C 8 DBCWIN.EXE interpreter is run, an error occurs. The site has other Win95 workstations running DBCWIN.EXE without problems. What is the problem? Answer: We don't know. The DB/C 8 DBCWIN.EXE is compiled/created with a 32 bit (Intel 386) Windows emulator (Watcom's) that runs on top of the 16 bit (x86) Windows 3.1 API which under Windows 95 is emulated by converting the API calls to Win32 API calls of Windows 95. It's amazing it works at all. Under Windows NT, a different 16 bit emulator is involved which exhibits other problems. We suggest you upgrade to DB/C 9.1 for Win95/98/NT. This version of DB/C is built specifically for the Win32 API. ***************************************************************************** DB/C Class Schedule Class: DB/C DX and JX Language Fundamentals Date: June 1999 Location: Oak Brook, Illinois For information, contact Judi Tamkevic at: voice 630.572.0240 email dbc@swc.com ***************************************************************************** Subscribing to the DB/C Newsletter If you don't already have the DB/C Newsletter delivered to your email address and would like to have it emailed to you when it is produced, just send an email message to 'request@swc.com' and put the line 'subscribe dbcnews' in the body of the email message (omit the ' characters). The newsletter will be delivered to the email address from which the message was sent. To stop delivery, put the line 'unsubscribe dbcnews' in the body of the message.