WOOD AND WIND COMPUTING
Bill Cable : RR 2 Box 92 : Cornish, NH 03745 : 603 675 2218
This is an open letter to all QL users to urge you to use ARCHIVE. There are many new US QL users out there plus a lot of older ones who have virtually ignored the ARCHIVE database program supplied with the QL. Maybe you took a cursory look at it and decided because it doesn’t have any immediate flashy screens and it has a large set of commands that have to be learned that it wasn’t worth the effort. Although it is not real flashy at first,it can be made flashy, but that is not the point. It is a workhorse. It can manipulate and organize whatever information you put into a database with amazing speed and ease of effort. Unfortunately, even if you know the language you can’t do much until you enter enough information to manipulate. So it does take an effort. But you can also purchase ready made archive programs. These programs are run within the ARCHIVE environment and provide specific services to the user. You may still have to enter the data but the programs make it as easy as possible. There are several address databases available and perhaps other software as well.
I would also like to urge more programmers to use this language for program development. It works very well for complex business systems and many other applications where QL users would be willing to pay for software.
Below I will give 12 reasons to use ARCHIVE. I hope this will convince some of you nonusers to explore it a little and see what a wonderful piece of software you got for nothing. Next, I will point out a few shortcomings of ARCHIVE. After all, I don’t claim it to be perfect. And last, I will give a mini ARCHIVE lesson for beginners which will include a single line of ARCHIVE commands which will calculate and print on the screen how many countries of the world have a population density less than the US and what their sum total population is, using the Gazet database provided on your database cartridge. Beat that, HyperCard! Maybe that will whet your appetite for extracting trivial information from Gazet.
12 Good Reasons To Use ARCHIVE
1. The price is right. That lonely cartridge is setting there covered with dust. All you need to do is open your manual, press <F1> and you are on your way. The supplied database, Gazet, gives you something to play with. At the end of this letter you will find a mini ARCHIVE lessons for total beginers.
2. There is a great need for information handling. All of us could use more help in storing and organizing information in our lives. This is what a computer does best. ARCHIVE provides a very good environment to handle information. You can do it yourself or buy ready made programs.
3. Learning to use a database is important for all serious computer users. The concepts used in ARCHIVE are the same used in other databases. Learning ARCHIVE makes learning others easier.
4. It is universal among all QL users and is not protected. There are a few new database systems beside ARCHIVE for the QL and it nice to have a choice but it will be some time before a large number of us owns a copy.
5. There is an IBM compatible version of the PSION progrrams ($100). So any work done on the QL can be transferred to the IBM compatible environment.
6. The ARCHIVE operating system and language is very well designed. I have systems of procedures with over 70k of source code. I find ARCHIVE’s behavior completely reliable and predictable. No lockups or program crashes. Whenever I think I have found a system bug and track it down it turns out to be my bug. In my opinion it is a at least a couple of notches better than the other PSION programs.
7. The language is excellent. It is like a structured SUPERBASIC with no line numbers. Some commands differ but it is procedure oriented. The built in editor is good. If it had a search/replace no other editor would ever be needed. Its automatic indenting makes program legibility very good. I hardly ever list out a program in hardcopy. I can do all my design and debugging on screen. Error messages are very good. Leaving out an ‘endif’ etc. cause a structure fault message that is a heaven send. Errors messages pin point the offending procedures by name. Errors can also be totally supressed to make friendly crash proof programs for others.
8. Archive is the best place to keep the source of any information destined to ABACUS, EASEL, or QUILL. Because it has a language, you can restructure the information in any way desired for the other PSION programs. You can print fancy reports to files for import to QUILL. You can send information and numbers to ABACUS for easier manipulation. you can send summary information to EASEL for graphs. You have total power over your information if you know how to use ARCHIVE or purchased a program from someone who does.
9. Archive has excellent number crunching power. Much better than SUPERBASIC.
10. Compared to some other databases, its handling of fields, sorting, and ordering is nice and straight forward although maybe not as flexible. It can order a 2000 record file in 2 minutes. Not super fast but very good for most applications. It can handle many files at once.
11. It can be made to do a lot even on an unexpanded machine. Programs can be broken into parts and loaded and run automatically as each part is needed. This allows more free data area and running program too big for memory. You can also write programs that write programs and merge and run them without restarting anything. A program I wrote to easily change the fields of a database (REFIELD), takes advantage of both these properties.
12. It has a separate screen editor which makes complex screen design and construction relatively easy and different screens can be loaded at any time.
Some limitations of ARCHIVE
1. The worst problem is the possiblility of corrupting a database file by ‘opening’ it for insertions, alteration, deletions and not closing it before turning the computer off, losing power, or QL crash. The fact that this happens mandates keeping multiple backup copies. Any time changes are made to the database back it up. Backing up is important for any computer user anyway but beginners are often slow to learn this until they really get burned. Using microdrives calls for even more caution. If your QL unpredictably locks up, get it fixed or be very careful. This may appear to make ARCHIVE too dangerous to use but in practice, if you back up you will lose little if anything ever. When ‘looking’ there is no danger. There are programs to recover ARCHIVE files but they are not easy to use and nothing can be guaranteed. Preventive action is safest and best. I like to use 2 or 3 backups which I keep alternating between. I put the day of the year in pencil on the backup. That way I can find my latest easily.
2. No detailed documentation of Archive. I think the ARCHIVE section of the QL manual is pretty good as far as it goes. There are a few typo mistakes in the examples but it is worth using as a guide. The sections defining each command and function and error message should be studied carefully. There is ARCHIVE MASTER ($45) from RMG enterprises. I haven’t seen it. Also TAKING THE QUANTUM LEAP ($26) from TIME DESIGNS is a more general book about the QL.
3. Slow screen handling. You can design very nice screens and data displays but you can’t get around the screen as fast as you would like. This may be part ARCHIVE and part QL.
4. No data arrays allowed. There are field related functions that use field numbers as indexes which are very handy. You can make a dummy database and use it like an array. Position can be one index and the field number the other. If it is in RAM it will be fast.
5. On an unexpanded machine it is easy to run out of memory when doing selections and orderings of large databases.
6. Not much software yet. This will improve. There is a good address database from EMSOFT (MAILBAG), which will handle printing labels, postcards, repeat letters. I have a utility to allow easy addition of fields (REFIELD) to any already created databases. I have a tutoring database (DBTUTOR)to help learn any subject. I am working on a very comprehensive program for the small business to handle all record keeping, invoicing, check writing. It has been under development for over a year. I also offer an address database (DBADDRES). There are probably more US ARCHIVE based programs not known to me.
Conclusion
We are very lucky that PSION did such an excellent job developing this program. It will allow your QL to do first rate work for you for many years to come. You only need to learn a little about using it.
Mini ARCHIVE Lesson For Beginners
1. Turn on or reset your computer. Put cartridge labeled ‘Database’ in the left microdrive slot (mdv1_). Press <F1> key.
2. ARCHIVE will load and you will see a little ‘>’ at the bottom of the screen waiting for a command. All commands can be seen by pressing <F3> and watching the upper center box. If you type a command and <ENTER> it will be executed. Press <F5> to cause the last command line to be retyped (an easy way repeat a command or correct a mistake ). Pressing the <ESC> key aborts a command.
3. You were given a database,Gazet, with information about all the countries of the world on your database cartridge. Let’s play with it for a little while.
look "mdv1_gazet"<ENTER> (access the database)
print count()<ENTER> (total records)
display<ENTER> (display a record with field names and values)
select continent$="S.AMERICA"<ENTER> (select a sub group)
print count()<ENTER> (how many included)
display<ENTER> (display again)
order pop;a<ENTER> (order population in ascending order)
last<ENTER> (most populated)
back<ENTER> (next most populated)
first<ENTER> (least populated)
next<ENTER> (next least populated)
reset:print count() (reset back to all countries)
(Try on your own ordering and selection)
reset:select pop/area<.0229:let p=0:all:let p=p+pop:endall:print count();":";p
(above is the promised command. US density = .0229, notice the result)
(play some more)
quit<ENTER> (always quit when done)You just learned the basics of using a database.
(Handwritten by the editor: “Sure did! Ed”)