HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: sjs@netcom.com (Stephen Schow)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
Subject: Re: How to enhance the forms?
Date: 5 Nov 92 20:45:33 GMT
Article-I.D.: netcom.1992Nov5.204533.21502
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

I also agree that you should explain to your users about BLOCKS.  There are
certainly some circumstances when they just want to be able to hit <return>
and have it move them into the next block.  That's when you can implement
the key-nxtfld triggers.  But have them understand about blocks and the 
fact that they are moving into a new block, which probably represents another
entity of data.

I like to draw boxes around my blocks to help them see the blocks as little
subwindows.
-- 
------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Schow    | But you don't have to use the claw, if you
sjs@netcom.com | pick the pear with the big paw paw......
               | Have I given you a clue......?
               |                       - Baloo the Bear
------------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
From: kpalm@athena.qualcomm.com (Kent Palm)
Subject: Re: HELP! - Corrupted EXPort file
Organization: Qualcomm, Inc., San Diego, CA
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 23:20:30 GMT

There is a technical write up in the '90 or '91 Oracle proceedings on
recovering a corrupted export file.  It may be of help.
From: Steve Frampton <frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca>
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
Subject: Re: How to disable '$' DCL shell?
Keywords: vax vms oracle sqlplus
Date: Sat, 07 Nov 92 21:02:10 EST
Reply-To: frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca
Followup-To: comp.databases.oracle
Distribution: world
Organization: Vicuna Systems, Kingston, ON (613) 547-5066
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

Steve Frampton <frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca> wrote:

> Hi everyone:
> 
> I would like to find out how to disable the '$' shell to DCL from SQLPLUS
> for the comp. services dept. @ my place of employment.  This seems to be
> somewhat of a security hole and if there is a simple way to disable users
> from accessing it how is it done?

As promised, I am following up here with a summary.  Special thanks to
all who responded:

	sinha@bms.com, rsingi@penuts.enet.dec.com, rwk@netcom.com,
	hatzinger_m@bmwf1f.bmwf.gv.at, jbennett@netcom.com,
	andy@homebase.vistachrome.com

	...and anyone else who happened to respond just during or after
I put together this followup.

Although the above people could have told me to RTFM (someone told me
that the information was in Appendix E of the SQL*Plus manual -- but
gave me the pertinent information anyways), they were all very helpful,
telling me basically to add an entry to the 'PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE'
table to disable any required commands for unauthorized users.

The trick is to log into ORACLE as system and insert the required info
into the table similar to:

insert into PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE 
	    (PRODUCT,USERID,ATTRIBUTE,CHAR_VALUE)
values      ('SQL*Plus','OPS%','HOST','DISABLED');

'SQL*Plus' must be entered in exactly as shown, and the userid as well as
the attribute (command) must be entered in uppercase.  The userid may be a
specific userid, or wildcards can be used as well.

To re-enable a command simply delete the row from the database.

It was also suggested that I should make sure other users do not have 
access to the PRODUCT_USER_PROFILE table or they would be able to simply
circumvent any changes made!

Thanks again for all the timely and helpful responses!

+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------+
| Steve Frampton - frampton@vicuna.ocunix.on.ca | Steve Frampton     |
| I collect postcards!  If you send me one from | 501-A Princess St. |
| your area, I'll send one in return.  Send to >| Kingston, Ontario  |
| (Don't forget both email and mailing address) | CANADA   K7L 1C3   |
+-----------------------------------------------+--------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.databases.oracle
From: nafallon@vax1.tcd.ie
Subject: Dynamic SQL - PREPARE
Organization: Trinity College Dublin
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 19:16:51 GMT

Hi, anybody like to help a struggling Oracler?.
One of our tables has a column listing the other tables to be accessed. 
I want to read a table name into a variable and then query that table for some
 more data, therefore I have to use Dynamic SQL, but I cannot seem to get past
 the PREPARE stage.

The statement: EXEC SQL PREPARE subcat_stmt FROM :select_stmt;

gives the error: ORA-00911: invalid character

select_stmt is created as follows..

EXEC SQL BEGIN DECLARE SECTION;
        VARCHAR select_stmt[200];
EXEC SQL END DECLARE SECTION;

sprintf(select_stmt.arr,"SELECT song FROM rush WHERE album = 'Presto'");

I have tried all sorts of combinations of VARCHARs and char's as well as using
 variables for column names but the same error always results.
Any pointers as to why this is happening would be greatly appreciated.

Niall Fallon
fallon@mee.tcd.ie
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: davek@informix.com (David Kosenko)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.object,comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: missing SQL exec (std engine)
Date: 5 Nov 92 17:20:21 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.

In article <19921104.185537.730@almaden.ibm.com> galem@vnet.ibm.com writes:
>
>Upon detection of the disappeared sqlexec, we attempted closing the
>database and then opening it again. This fails with an error code of
>-457, WHICH IS NOT DOCUMENTED in any of our manuals. We have also been
>unable to obtain any information from Informix Tech Support regarding
>the meaning of this error code. Because we cannot reopen the database,
>it would appear that when the original engine exited, it was not done
>cleanly. But we haven't a clue about what we can look at to try and
>determine what has happened.
>
>Any help would be very much appreciated. Thank you.
>

I have no idea as to why you are seeing what you are seeing.  I can say
that -457 means "SQL engine terminated unexpectedly".  This is because
the front end expects an engine to be there.  The easiest way to get
moving again would be to issue an sqlexit() call (this simply terminates
the engine, which, though already gone, should do some additional cleanup),
followed by an sqlstart(), which will start up a new engine process. You
should then be able to open the database with a DATABASE statement.
These two functions are, I believe, undocumented in older releases, but
they should be available.

Hope this is helpful.

Dave
-- 
Disclaimer: These opinions are not those of Informix Software, Inc.
**************************************************************************
"I look back with some satisfaction on what an idiot I was when I was 25,
 but when I do that, I'm assuming I'm no longer an idiot." - Andy Rooney
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: tpradeep@cs.tamu.edu (Pradeep K Tapadiya)
Subject: FoxBase to `C' Contract: How much should I ask for? Help
Organization: Computer Science Department, Texas A&M University
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 22:17:20 GMT

Howdy friends,

I have been approached by a company to write a generic FoxBase to
`C' converter. The user-interface needs to be converted to "printf"
kind of statements. The database calls need to be converted to
db-vista calls. Efficiency doen't seem to be an important
consideration. 

So far I used to program on per hour basis. This is the first time
I have been asked to bid for a project. I do not how many man-hours
this work would involve. Since this is my first break, I do not
wish to loose this contract. Would the experienced readers on the
net advice me on how much I should bid for this contract? Any
kind of advise/strategy is appreciated.

Thank you for your help.

Pradeep
tpradeep@cs.tamu.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.databases.ingres
From: mdchaney@fractal.ucs.indiana.edu (M Darrin Chaney)
Subject: Re: Ingres questions followup
Organization: Indiana University, Bloomington
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 06:33:53 GMT

thompson@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson, code 682.1, x2040) writes:
>Nobody could think of any concerns involved with importing/exporting text
>files.  I take this to mean that ASCII I/O is also restricted to ~2000
>characters per line, but that there are no additional restrictions.

Actually, that's not true.  You assume that the size of the field in the
database is the same as its textual size.  A four byte integer can consume
9 or 10 ascii characters.  You get the drift.

>It appears
>that this is true even on VAX machines, where text files have traditionally
>been restricted to 255 characters per line.

Traditionally, files under VMS are limited to 65534 byte records.  That's
because for normal variable length record files, the record length is stored
in the two bytes before the record.  For Stream-LF files, that barrier can
be overcome.

	Darrin
-- 

mdchaney@iubacs mdchaney@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu mdchaney@rose.ucs.indiana.edu

"I want- I need- to live, to see it all..."
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: ASCII multi-record database editor
From: R.C.(Chuck) Solly <NU035609@NDSUVM1.BITNET>
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 13:50:17 CST
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network

Mike
I believe that you can use a word processor search and replace
function to replace all of the tabs with commas. At this point
you have a comma delimited file (assuming no other problems).
Then import the file into any one of a number of flat file
database programs, File Express, PC-File, Clairon, etc.

Chuck
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: thompson@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson, code 682.1, x2040)
Subject: Confusion of tools
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Keywords:  Windows/4GL, tools
Organization: NASA/GSFC-Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics
Distribution: usa
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 20:23:00 GMT

I just saw a demo of Ingres's Windows/4GL product, and let me tell you: I'm
impressed.  Windows/4GL lets one define windows-based query forms in a
graphical environment without making the user/developer know much about
programming.

However, having said that, there is one deficiency that Windows/4GL doesn't
seem to address, and that is it doesn't really help the user/developer
formulate the 4GL code that sits behind all those buttons and sliders, etc.,
for those people who aren't SQL literate.  Ingres does have another product,
Ingres/Vision which does look like it would address this issue, but doesn't
seem to be well integrated with Windows/4GL.

I've also talked to other SQL DBMS vendors, and they often seem to have a
plethora of different products, report writers, forms generators, etc., which
to a novice like myself seems quite confusing.

What we need is a single integrated environment for all database interaction,
for both developer and user alike.  It must be easy to use, and support a wide
variety of windows environments (Motif, OpenLook, Microsoft Windows,
Presentation Manager, MacIntosh).  If the product line does need to be split up
into several different products, then these products should all have a similar
look and feel, and should be integrated together, i.e. able to communicate
information back and forth between themselves.  It's too much to ask people to
learn one thing for generating forms on the screen, another thing for
generating printed output, and another thing for generating SQL statements (or
for that matter to learn SQL).  This is the direction Unix database vendors
need to be thinking about.

Having said that, Ingres's Windows/4GL is the best thing I've seen so far for
making it easy for users to interact with an SQL database.  If anyone knows of
a better product, either from a database or third-party vendor, that runs on a
variety of platforms (Unix, DOS, VMS, etc.) I would like to hear about it.

Bill Thompson
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: lindsey@tincup.enet.dec.com (Randy Lindsey)
Subject: Re: FP 2.0 won't print reports on a postscript printer. Help.
Organization: Colorado Software Solutions, Inc.
Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1992 19:21:20 GMT


In article <Bx77K6.Mop@chinet.chi.il.us>, les@chinet.chi.il.us (Leslie Mikesell) writes...
>In article <1992Nov3.013431.11150@athena.cs.uga.edu> millia@athena.cs.uga.edu (David W. Millians) writes:
> 
>>Specifics: It's FP 2.0 lan, printing to an IBM 6 PS laserprinter.
>>When the print job gets to the printer, it says "flushing," which
>>apparently means that it is getting an end-of-job character from 
>>Foxpro. This is an inconsistent error, unfortunately. Sometimes
>>the report works fine.
> 
>"Flushing" means the printer has an error condition and it's usually
>caused by sending non-postscript data.  The situation that is likely
>to cause this in FP is that you can either associate a print driver
>with a report form or not.  If you don't, the current or default
>setting is used, if you do, the specified setting will be used instead.
>You can control this with the "Printer Driver Setup" check box
>under "Page Layout" in the report generator.  

Also make sure your LAN printing settings are sending out banners, form
feeds, etc.  Make sure the LAN doesn't try to translate tabs, etc. (use
NoTab on Novell).

Randy Lindsey
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: joet@dcatlas.dot.gov (Joe Trott)
Subject: Re: small TSR database with easy to use paste function WTD
Keywords: TSR, paste, dos
Organization: U.S Dept. of Transportation
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 17:33:56 GMT


Some of the awkwardness of the cut_and_paste functions might be alleviated
by using macros.  Then again, it might not.  Just an idea...

-JTT
From: yabuki@hoffman.cc.sophia.ac.jp (Michirou Yabuki)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: ENGLISH-ENGLISH dictionary database (In Japanese)
Date: 9 Nov 92 03:16:13 GMT
Organization: Computer Center, Sophia Univ., Tokyo, Japan

I'm looking for a plane text ENGLISH-ENGLISH dictionary database.
Is it possible to get such database from FTP site?

If anybody knows about such kind of databases, please let me know.

Thanks in advance.

-yabuki
yabuki@sophia.ac.jp

Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: michaelh@g2syd.genasys.com.au (Michael Haldey)
Subject: Re: Clipper 5.01 left over locks
Organization: Genasys II, Sydney, Australia
Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 23:47:05 GMT

In article <paulb.721055967@cs.man.ac.uk> paulb@cs.man.ac.uk (Paul Bean) writes:
>I have a program which is to run on both a network and single user.  I
>use the locks.prg supplied with clipper to do the appropriate locking
>for me.  I have one version so I do the locking even if it is on a
>single user dos machine.  I was running it single user yesterday (Dos
>5.01 by the way) when it keeled over with not enough memory.  I
>removed a couple of drivers so that there was enough memory for it to
>run and went in again, however when the program came to open the dbfs
>that were exclusively locked when it went down it could not
>open them(in shared mode).  I presumed that the lock information was
>held in the dbfs so I deleted these and went to a backup.  However
>when I tried to run the program it still wouldn't let me open the
>previously locked files.  I tried moving everything to a new
>directory,still no joy.  I have tried ringing Computer Associates who
>could not suggest anything.  Does anyone know where the lock
>information is held ? and how I can get rid of it.  This is becoming a
>real pain.
>
>Thanks in advance Paul 

Here are some ideas about it. I did not write locks in single-user environment,
so I do not guarantee the accuracy and hope that someone would correct me.

The Dos has a number of interrupts dealing with locks (numbers smth like 5ch).
The Clipper uses these interrupts to obtain the locking information on 
dbf. The dbf file itself has no place for locking lists at all. If you are
on the network - all is clear, the network server intercepts the interrupt
calls and provide locking (this is what Novell does). In single USER Dos,
the SHARE command should be loaded to deal with the interrupts and because
Clipper is working without it, I suspect that Clipper has support for 
the lock lists within and use it together with DOS interrupts. So, if
the interrupt says that the record is unlocked and there are no locks in the
list, the region is considered to be unlocked. I'd like also to note that
locking in DOS may be for any file, because the interrupt is supplied by
file, offset, and length of locked region.

My 0.02
Michael

P.S. I did not manage to receive any info on internal locking in Clipper
from support in Australia either.
-- 
Michael Haldey  |  Genasys II Pty Ltd
                |  13th Level, 33 Berry St, North Sydney, NSW, Australia
                |  Phone:    +61-2-954-2878 (-9930 FAX)
                |  Internet: michaelh@g2syd.genasys.com.au
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.os.msdos.programmer
From: marcogut@isluga.puc.cl (Marco Gutierrez)
Subject: Clipper and Mouse
Organization: Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Sat, 7 Nov 1992 18:10:16 GMT

Hi   

I need use a mouse with the menus on cliper 5.01.
But, Not Can. I dont not if a lib that do want.




	


			Camilo Chavez

			cchavez@ing.puc.cl
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: rols@xtc.shearson.com (Roland King)
Subject: OODBS recommendation for Sun
Organization: Lehman Brothers
Distribution: comp.databases
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 13:55:21 GMT


We are looking for an OODB for a reasonably large Sun application which we are
just beginning work on in C++. I've heard of Gemstone/Servio, but know litle about
them nor other available products. 
If anybody has used/tried out/tested any commercial OODBS, I would love to have a quick
synopsis of features and a recommendation if possible
If we can't get a good OODB, we're interfacing C++ to Sybase and I'm sure you wouldn't
wish that job on anybody !!

Either post to the group or mail to rols@shearson.com

Thanks in advance.
From: paulb@cs.man.ac.uk (Paul Bean)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Clipper 5.01 left over locks
Date: 6 Nov 92 13:19:27 GMT

I have a program which is to run on both a network and single user.  I
use the locks.prg supplied with clipper to do the appropriate locking
for me.  I have one version so I do the locking even if it is on a
single user dos machine.  I was running it single user yesterday (Dos
5.01 by the way) when it keeled over with not enough memory.  I
removed a couple of drivers so that there was enough memory for it to
run and went in again, however when the program came to open the dbfs
that were exclusively locked when it went down it could not
open them(in shared mode).  I presumed that the lock information was
held in the dbfs so I deleted these and went to a backup.  However
when I tried to run the program it still wouldn't let me open the
previously locked files.  I tried moving everything to a new
directory,still no joy.  I have tried ringing Computer Associates who
could not suggest anything.  Does anyone know where the lock
information is held ? and how I can get rid of it.  This is becoming a
real pain.

Thanks in advance Paul 
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: aahz@netcom.com (Mean Green Dancing Machine)
Subject: Re: Paradox 4.0 speed (?)
Organization: Don't blame me, I voted for Bill 'n' Opus
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 19:17:40 GMT

In article <4161@bcstec.ca.boeing.com> rick@bcstec.ca.boeing.com (Richard Hall) writes:
> 
>Why are you sorting a data table anyway? If the reason is to print it in 
>reports in a sorted manner, do that IN THE REPORT using GROUPINGS! If you need
>to sort data in a table, you obviously are not using KEYS. Paradox nearly 
>requires use of keys for optimum performance. Keys are the trigger to speed 
>and performance in paradox. I find sorting seldom needed in a data table and I  have been building Paradox applications for 5 years. Sorting defeats the
>purpose of keys and indexes and should not be used if a well designed database.
>Use of INDEXES  create secondary keys which can increase searches and queries
>performances substantially. Do not use sorts, use Paradox functions for earching tables. Sorts can be used for processing ANSWER tables prior to creating graphs, but that is the ONLY reason I would sort a table...

I agree with most of your advice, but since you're acting like a flaming
nit-wit, here's a counter-flame:

Suppose I have 1000 customers, and I want to find the 10 with the most
sales.  You tell me an easy way to find this without sorting.  If you
can't, least you can do is leave a pile of black feathers.
-- 
                         --- Aahz (the *other* Dan Bernstein)
                             @netcom.com 

Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6

Who needs Lime Jello [tm]?  We had lasagna.....
From: ameesh@lsil.com (Ameesh Desai)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: OODBS recommendation for Sun
Date: 10 Nov 92 19:30:27 GMT
Reply-To: ameesh@lsil.com
Organization: LSI Logic Corporation

I have done a paper evaluation of some of the commercial OODBMS vendors. I can't 
disclose the one selected. However, I would suggest a book that might provide some
info ...

Object Data Management by R.G.G. Cattell

Also I have looked at these issues in my evaluation (not in any particular order).
 Data Model
	language interface (we needed C++). Dynamic typing ? etc.
 Persistence
	By type inheritance or allocation ?
 Operations 
	- clustering
	- Version and Configuration Mgmt
	- Relationships
	- Referential Integrity
	- query support
	- collections / composite object support
 Concurrency Control & Lock Mgmt
	- is the granularity at the object level ?
	- how are deadlocks handled / detected (can they detect them accross
	  databases
 Transaction Management
	- do they have long & short transactions
	- can they be nested
 Change Notification / Triggers
 Architecture
	- extensibility
	- ability to handle large amounts of data (scalability)
	- distributivity (accross hetrogenous machine architectures)
	- possible performance impacts
 Administration Utilities
 Authorization and Security
 Schema Evolution
 Performance
	- being a paper eval, we had to depend on published benchmarks / vendor
	  supplied numbers and references
 Development Enviornment
	- could we use existing tools to develop code ?
	- how easy was it to migrate existing code to the ODB.
 References
	- this was quite informative as I got to speek with a number of existing users
	  and people who had done extensive evaluations.


Hope this helps.

Ameesh

---
______________________________     o__            
| _   /|     Ameesh Desai     \    ,>/_                              
| \`O.o'     LSI Logic Corp.   \__(_)`(_)_              email: ameesh@lsil.com
| =(_|_)=    MS E192, 1501 McCarthy Blvd. \             fax  : (408) 433-6802
|____U_______Milpitas, CA 95035____________\____________voice: (408) 433-4097
From: srinivas@csd4.csd.uwm.edu (Srinivas Vuppuluri)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Reading dBase III+ Files
Date: 7 Nov 1992 17:44:52 GMT
Organization: Computing Services Division, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
NNTP-Posting-Host: 129.89.7.4

Why not display the data and log it to a text file? The latter can be edited
with a standard editor or with a 3GL.

Try the following:
SET HEADING OFF
SET ALTERNATE TO TEXTFILE   /* (will be saved as TEXTFILE.TXT) */
SET ALTERNATE ON
DISPLAY ALL OFF

Is this too simp for what you wanted or am I missing something here?

Srinivas



-- 
**************************************************************************
*  srinivas@csd4.csd.uwm.edu                   I speak for myself.       * 
*  University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee                                     *
**************************************************************************