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                    *          DB/C Newsletter          *
                    *             May 1997              *
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                               News and Comments

     DB/C 9.1 was released this week.  It is available for all operating
environments that DB/C supports except Mac OS.  The upgrade to DB/C 9.1 is
available at no cost for current DB/C 9.0 licensees.  Upgrades from DB/C 8
and older are the same cost as the upgrade to DB/C 9.0.  To receive your
upgrade, contact your source for DB/C software.

     The Call For Votes for the comp.lang.plb newsgroup was issued May 2.
You can read the CFV in any of these USENET newsgroups:  comp.lang.misc,
news.groups, and news.announce.newgroups.  In 1996, the first effort to
establish comp.lang.plb failed because there were not enough YES votes.
Hopefully, this time the effort will succeed.  comp.lang.plb would be a
great forum to discuss general PL/B issues, and it would help make PL/B
a more well known language.  Take the time to find the CFV, and then
vote YES to establish the comp.lang.plb newsgroup.

     There has been a problem with the FSS 1.0 installation process that
affected several customers.  The problem was that the Microsoft ODBC driver
installation program would either not install, or would sometimes install
the wrong version of the CTL3D32.DLL file.  This file is a Microsoft file
that implements the 3-D look for controls.  We believe that all of these
problems are now fixed in the latest version of the FSS software.  If you
run into any problems in this area, get the newest version of FSS 1.0.

     Another issue that seems to come up frequently in talking with FSS
users is the lack of understanding of SQL.  SQL is a huge language.  Whether
you are accessing FSS directly with SQL statements or via some front end
software like Excel, Access, PowerBuilder or whatever, all file I/O is done
using SQL statements.  Regardless of which software you are using to access
FSS, it helps to understand SQL.  There are many excellent books that provide
introductory tutorials about SQL.  If you are going to use or support FSS,
I recommend that you read one of these books and become familiar with SQL.

     FSS 1.0 supports only a subset of SQL.  In certain cases that are out
the of direct control of the user, front end software like Excel will create
complicated SQL statements that FSS 1.0 can not handle.  Future releases of
FSS will execute more complicated SQL statements.  If you have a particular
SQL feature that is not supported in FSS 1.0 and that you need, bring it
to our attention so that we can make sure that it is supported by future
versions of FSS.

     Earlier this year I mentioned the creation of computer based training
materials for DB/C, probably CD-ROM based.  After spending a week putting
together a 25 minute speech that was presented at the UK DATABUS User Group
meeting in March, I recognized that creating the DB/C training CDs would be
a significant project.  We still plan on doing it, but it won't be available
soon.  I'll let you know more later this year.  Until it is available, we
will continue to provide the DB/C classes in Oak Brook.  Also don't forget
about the orange DATABUS book.  It is a great tutorial on basic DATABUS.
Many people have found it to be very helpful for getting started with DB/C.

     After just changing the area code for our phone number, now the US
postal service is changing our zip code.  Starting July 1, our new zip
code will be 60523.

     There will not be a feature article this month.  All of our attention
is focused on developing several new products that will announced later
this year.  Watch this space.


                                                            don.wills@swc.com

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                             DB/C Class Schedule

           Class                       Date                    Location
   DB/C 9 Fundamentals           June 10-12, 1997           Oak Brook, IL

   For information, contact Judi Tamkevic at:
       voice  630.572.0240
       fax    630.572.0390
       email  dbc@swc.com

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