HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: thompson@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (William Thompson, code 682.1, x2040)
Subject: SQL database vendors for Unix
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: NASA/GSFC-Laboratory for Astronomy and Solar Physics
Date: Fri, 21 Aug 1992 20:18:00 GMT

A while back I asked for names of vendors of SQL relational database engines
for Unix.  I got a number of responses, some of which were posted to this
newsgroup, and some of which were E-mailed to me directly.  I thank everybody
who responded.

The responses I got covered a wide range of issues.  Rather than try to list
them all, I've decided to list only those companies I've been able to track
down as meeting my specifications.  All of the companies listed supply
(back-end) relational database engines.  Many also supply other (front-end)
database products, but that was not the focus of my current survey effort.  All
support SQL, either directly or indirectly through support products, which was
a hard requirement at our site.  Each of these products will run on a mix of
Unix platforms, and may run in other OS environments as well, such as VMS or
DOS, although again the focus of the survey was Unix.

I make no claims for any of these products.  Nor do I claim that the list is
complete.  If anyone knows of any other database engines meeting our base
requirements (SQL, Unix) not listed here, I would be happy to hear about them.
The products are listed in alphabetical order.

Bill Thompson

===============================================================================
c-tree Plus				Faircom Corporation
					4006 West Broadway
					Columbia, MO 65203

					800-234-8180


Informix				Informix Software, Inc.
					4100 Bohannon Drive
					Menlo Park, CA 94025

					800-331-1763


Ingres					Ingres
					An ASK Company
					1080 Marina Village Parkway
					Box 4026
					Alameda, CA 94501

					800-4-INGRES


Interbase				Borland
					1800 Green Hills Road
					P.O. Box 660001
					Scotts Valley, CA 95067-0001

					800-245-7367


Oracle					Oracle Corporation
					20 Davis Drive
					Belmont, CA 94002

					800-345-DBMS


Progress				Progress Software Corporation
					14 Oak Park
					Bedford, MA 01730

					617-275-4500


Raima Data Manager			Raima Corporation
(formally db_VISTA III)			Lincoln Executive Center III
					3245 - 146th Place SE #230
					Bellevue, WA 98007

					800-DB-RAIMA


Sybase					Sybase, Inc.
					6475 Christie Avenue
					Emeryville, CA 94608

					800-8-SYBASE


Unify 2000				Unify
					3901 Lennane Drive
					Sacramento, CA 95834-1922

					800-24-UNIFY
From: mas@mipl8.jpl.nasa.gov (Marc Sarrel)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Window-based SQL Database Edit Program for SQL/DOS???
Date: 17 Aug 92 20:25:30 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Is there a commercial program that runs on a 386 PC, that will talk to
our Sharebase 300 database server in SQL, that is window-based that
will allow interactive editing of the database?

I have in mind something that will give you a list of tables, let you
choose one, then let you specify a set of rows in that table via
something like an SQL where clause, then let you edit and write the
data back to the database.

Is there such a beast, or do I have to write something myself?

advTHANKSance,

Marc
--
Marc Sarrel			"Strange as it seems,
Jet Propulsion Laboratory	 There's been a run of crazy dreams,
mas@mipl8.jpl.nasa.gov		 And a man who can interpret could go far --
				 Could become a star."
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: merritt@climate.NoSubdomain.NoDomain (John H. Merritt)
Subject: Lat/lon for Cities of World
Organization: Climate and Radiation Branch
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 22:01:50 GMT

It looks like this is the closest NG that I could find to
request information about the location of a database.

I am looking for a database that contains the latitude and
longitude for the major, and possibly minor, cities and towns for
the entire globe.  I have the World Data Bank II dataset and
I could not find a dataset with lat/lon's for anything but a few
cities.  I've looked in numerious ftp sites, used the new.answers
ftp list, etc., all in vain.

Also, if I could contact the Government agency that distributes
the World Map data set, which I found on ftp.uu.net, they either
have it or can direct me to where it is.  Name/Phone/Dept ... whatever.

If I find it, I will summarize to the net.
-- 
\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
John H. Merritt --> merritt@climate.gsfc.nasa.gov
"I am generally intolerant of ignorance,
but I have made an exception in your case."
From: mao@triplerock.CS.Berkeley.EDU (Mike Olson)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: distributed transactions
Date: 21 Aug 92 21:55:28 GMT
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
NNTP-Posting-Host: triplerock.cs.berkeley.edu

In <BtCrA6.Iuy@cup.hp.com>, dhepner@cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner) asks for
details on how non-blocking commit protocols handle network partitions:

> Maybe you can explain how this apparent dilemma is addressed:
> 
> Time 1:  node n acknowledges prepare
> Time 2:  node n notes an inability to communicate with anyone else, in 
> 	 particular any site capable of being the transaction coordinator
> Time 3:  still no communications, patience exhausted at node n

here's what the distributed systems theorists say:  a partition splits
a network into two pieces.  whichever piece contains a majority of
the nodes in the original network may continue processing.  nodes in
the minority clique cannot make further updates until the partition is
repaired.

there are some obvious problems with this -- for example, if no clique
contains a majority of the nodes in the original network, no one can
make progress.

> On the other hand, the rarity of actual blockage makes extreme concern
> not warranted for most real world systems.  The coordinator must go
> away at precisely the right time, _and then never return_.  Surely some 
> way needs to be offered to resolve the tie-up, but this issue does
> not justify a fundamental complaint against distributed transactions.

partitions aren't that rare.  ethernet bridges go down all the time.

you're correct in your assertion that strong consistency in the face
of catastrophic failures is very difficult to guarantee.  skeen's work
makes it possible for some nodes, under some conditions, to continue
to make progress when machines crash or communications fail, but it
doesn't solve the whole problem.  other approaches are to relax your
consistency requirements, or to have humans outside the loop grant
permission to acquire locks and update tables during communications
failures.

the added complexity of three-phase commit, coupled with the fact that
a clever adversary can force blockage anyway, have meant that it hasn't
gotten a lot of attention by commercial vendors.  in real life, what
people do is spend a lot of money on redundant, highly reliable
communications systems.  when something crashes, some expensive employees 
get it working again fast.

					mike olson
					project sequoia 2000
					uc berkeley
					mao@cs.berkeley.edu
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Versant
From: pogilvie@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (p ogilvie)
Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1992 00:24:02 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

Could anyone who has the address for OODBMS vendor Versant in the U.S please
let me know what it is?

Thanks

Phil Ogilvie
University of Auckland

Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: dhepner@cup.hp.com (Dan Hepner)
Subject: Re: Hot Standby DBMS's
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 22:10:44 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1scd1 PL4

From: sdo@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (scott.orshan)

>These facilities allow for a hot standby system or network to exist
>far away, with all service requests done both locally, and also queued
>for processing at the backup site. (I'm talking about high level
>application requests: DEBIT, RESERVE-ROOM, etc., not physical database
>operations.)

Do you have any suggestions as to how to handle the case when
one copy goes offline for a day or two, and then is fixed?  How 
would one get it back up to date and online?

Dan Hepner
From: drew@netcom.com (Drew Wade)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: Info on OODBMs needed
Date: 12 Aug 92 17:15:18 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest)

Objectivity/DB runs on thee SPARC, as well as all sun platforms, all dec
platorms (and operating systems), hp 9000 series (68k and risc), ibm risc,
sgi, and some others, all in a mixed fully distributed and heterogeneous
environment.  contact information follows.  email to info@objy.com
will get you some information.

-Drew Wade
Objectivity, Inc.
800 El Camino Real
Menlo Park, CA  94025 USA
drew@objy.com
+1(415)688-8000 voice
+1(415)325-0939 fax
information:  info@objy.com


67 South Bedford St., Ste. 400W
Burlington, MA  01803
(617) 229-5817
(617) 272-0558 fax

11050 Strathmore Dr., #316/300B
Los Angeles, CA  90024
(310) 208-6117
(310) 208-5677 fax


In article <GDZ572@netmbx.netmbx.de> jrobie@netmbx.netmbx.de (Jonathan Robie) writes:
>dlw@odi.com (Dan Weinreb) writes:
>
>  We are looking for some OODBMs to run on a SPARC. Can someone out there give 
>  me contact addresses (e-mail address preferred) and the approx. costs of the
>  same? Addresses of Australian Dealers would be of immediate help. 
>
>POET runs on the SPARC, NeXT, DOS, MS-Windows, and Macintosh.  Other ports
>are in the works.  Pricing starts at about $500.00 for the DOS version,
>to a little over $1000.00 for the Unix versions.  I don't have the
>exact pricing handy, and it varies a little depending on your country.
>
>For more information, contact:
>
>   BKS Software
>   Guerickestr. 27 
>   1000 Berlin 10
>   Germany
>
>   Phone: +49 30 / 342 3066
>   Fax:   +49 30 / 342 8413
>
>In the United States:
>
>   BKS Software
>   One Kendall Square
>   Suite 2200
>   Cambridge, MA 02139
>
>   Phone: 617 / 621 7047
>   Fax:   617 / 621 7097
>
>
>Jonathan
>
>=======================================================================
>
>Jonathan Robie		jrobie@netmbx.UUCP
>Arnold-Zweig-Str. 44	jrobie@netmbx.in-berlin.de
>O-1100 Berlin		
>Deutschland		Phone:  +37 (2) 472 04 19  (Home, East Berlin)
>				+49 (30) 342 30 66 (Work, West Berlin)
>
>
>-- 
>Jonathan
>
>===========================================================================
From: oklein@smallo.bo.open.de (Olaf Klein)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Database library for DOS and Unix wanted
Date: 20 Aug 92 20:43:44 GMT
Organization: smallo.bo.open.de Fido-SubNet-Gate : 2:245/5800.12

I'm searching for a database library (for access under C) which is
portable at least under MSDOS and Unix (SCO-Unix and SUN-OS). 
In the moment I am using C-Tree (without the SQL-Server), but I don't
like it very much - you have to go to deep into details to build a
database (and the source is (IMO) very bad...)
Nice would be the capability to read DBASE files.

Bye, Olaf



-- 
Olaf Klein     smallo.bo.open.de       2:245/5800.12
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: dwormuth@hstbme.mit.edu (David W. Wormuth)
Subject: Re: Alpha4
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 92 10:06:05 EDT
Organization: Harvard Medical School
Followup-To: comp.databases

> Has anyone heard of a PC package called ALPHA4?  Is it a database package
> or just a spreadsheet package?

Alpha4 is a dBase compatible database manager. It is very easy to use and
very powerful. It's prime attraction for me is the ability to have the data
values and format defined with the database. This has saved me days of
programming. You just specify what the field should contain and Alpha4
handles the rest. Anytime you define a form or enter a record, Alpha4
checks the fields to see that they conform to your specifications. Along
with this, it is very easy to specify another database or table to define
answers to fields.

It also does a much better job at relational database functions than dBase,
unlike dBase, Alpha4 lets you have truely relational databases. dBase
forces you to have a single record and hang all your relations off that
record, Alpha4 is happy to keep stringing along your records as you tell it
to.


David W. Wormuth, MD                    Internet: dwormuth@hstbme.mit.edu
Decision Systems Group                     Voice: 617-732-7748
Brigham and Women's Hospital
75 Francis Street
Boston, MA 02115
From: khioe@mona.jpl.nasa.gov (Kent Hioe)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: How to trim down dBASE IV database file ?
Keywords: dbase IV file
Date: 19 Aug 92 21:25:34 GMT
Followup-To: khioe@juno.jpl.nasa.gov
Organization: jpl


Hi, I need help from dBASE IV users.

Does any one know how to trim down a dBASE IV database file (*.dbf) ?

I notice that the size of "*.dbf" file still remains the same even though 
a lot of records have been deleted from that "dbf" file.

Is there any way to release the memory space after deleting records from the
"DBF" files (REINDEXING does not release the memory space either) ??


Thank you.


--
Kent
khioe@juno.jpl.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Versant
From: pogilvie@ccu1.aukuni.ac.nz (p ogilvie)
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 04:58:24 GMT
Organization: University of Auckland, New Zealand.

To all those who responded to my request (the address of Versant) I give my
heartfelt thanks. There were too many replies to thank everyone
individually.

Once again, thanks.

Phil Ogilvie

Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: XB.K14@forsythe.stanford.edu (Pechler)
Subject: ORACLE newsgroup?
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 04:21:12 GMT


Could anyone tell me whether or where I can find a newsgroup or
mailing list for ORACLE users specifically?

Thanks, -Henk.

Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: dweissman@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov (WiseGuy)
Subject: Re: Alpha4
Followup-To: comp.databases
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.4-b1  
Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. USA
Date: Mon, 17 Aug 1992 16:04:00 GMT

In article <dwormuth-170892095758@134.174.81.96>, dwormuth@hstbme.mit.edu (David W. Wormuth) writes...
%> Has anyone heard of a PC package called ALPHA4?  Is it a database package
%> or just a spreadsheet package?
% 
%Alpha4 is a dBase compatible database manager. It is very easy to use and
%very powerful. It's prime attraction for me is the ability to have the data
%values and format defined with the database. This has saved me days of
%programming. You just specify what the field should contain and Alpha4
%handles the rest. Anytime you define a form or enter a record, Alpha4
%checks the fields to see that they conform to your specifications. Along
%with this, it is very easy to specify another database or table to define
%answers to fields.
% 
%It also does a much better job at relational database functions than dBase,
%unlike dBase, Alpha4 lets you have truely relational databases. dBase
%forces you to have a single record and hang all your relations off that
%record, Alpha4 is happy to keep stringing along your records as you tell it
%to.

Thanks for the info.  Is there a good source of info regarding ALPHA4
(either book, magazine, or ftp site) for help in using the package?
================================================================================
Dave Weissman - WAN/LAN Networking

   Allied-Signal Aerospace        Internet#1 - dweissman@amarna.gsfc.nasa.gov
   BFEC - Dept. 976               Internet#2 - sysdhw@bfec2.gsfc.nasa.gov
   One Bendix Road                SPRINTnet's X.400 -
   Columbia, Maryland 21045-1897  (C:USA,A:TELEMAIL,P:GSFC,FN:DAVID,SN:WEISSMAN)
From: albert@HPLWK.HPL.HP.COM (Joseph Albert)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Re: distributed transactions
Date: 21 Aug 92 16:40:16 GMT


edwards@world.std.com (Jonathan Edwards) writes:

>>
>>If a non-blocking commit protocol is used, any transaction started at
>>a remote site which went down can be aborted, releasing its locks, and
>>leaving the database in a transaction-consistent state.
>>
>Could you site some references or examples for this statement?
>Certainly the conventional 2-phase commit protocol (which is what is
>implemented by all commercial instances of distributed TP that I know of)
>can easily leave you in a blocked-or-inconsistent state.
>See Bernstein and Goodman: Concurrency Control and Recovery in Database
>Systems. They state as a 'proposition' that any distributed transaction
>protocol has to be blocking in the presence of communication failures or
>total failures.

I don't have a copy of the Bernstein and Goodman book handy, though I thought
they discussed some sort of non-blocking protocol, the most well-known of
which is a 3-phase commit.  Guess my memory is faulty.

In any case, a good treatment of distributed commit protocols is:

Skeen, D., `Nonblocking Commit Protocols', in Proc. of the ACM-SIGMOD Int'l
            Conference on Management of Data, Orlando, FL, 1981.

Dale Skeen developed a theory of when a protocol is nonblocking and when it
can block, and further showed how one can generate any one of an infinite
family of non-blocking commit protocols.

Joseph Albert
albert@hplabs.hp.com
Newsgroups: comp.databases
From: wfinnert@larry.shearson.com (Warren Finnerty)
Subject: Re: Very large Decision Support database with Sybase ?!
Organization: Lehman Brothers
Date: Fri, 14 Aug 1992 19:45:26 GMT

In article <19920813.232502.163@almaden.ibm.com> LAMCOLIN@HKGVM8.VNET.IBM.COM writes:

>   A project is looking for solution to support a DSS (end user oriented,
>     ad hoc type) with 60Gb of data from various data sources. The largest
>     table will have 33Gb of data.

>   Does any one of USENET readers/shops experience such large data volume with
>     Sybase?

I doubt that there are more than 1 or 2 sites that large and I would be surprised
if there are any happy ones :-).

>   Is there any physical limitation on the table size or database size with
>     Sybase?

Each "device" cannot be larger than 32 GB. ( So plenty of room to spare )

>   Usually, Sybase says they are good in OLTP environment, but how about DSS
>     environment? Any reference or experience?

Sybase is setup so that by default the optimiser (pessimiser) will handle all
of the query plans. With tables that large there may be somewhat less than
optimal plans (fo' sure) and there is no foolproof clean programatic plan
access.

>   Moreover, whether all data should be placed on a single server or a network of
>     servers? Does Sybase has transparent access of data that partitioned over
>     several machines?

SYBASE does *not* spread across nodes ( SMP it does ).
Unless you want to look at NCR stuff ( oh IBM.... I guess not ) 

   Colin Lam, IBM Hong Kong, LAMCOLIN @ HKGVM8.VNET.IBM.COM
              ^^^
Get a *GOOD* guru ( not a mock guru ).
Plan on mirroring disks. ( Backup would take 60+ hours )
Break into as many databases ( same server ) as poss.
DBCC checkdb would take eons ( poss backup machine ).
4.9.1 + lots of memory ( some of the indexes would be HUGE )

good luck

NB ( create index w/ "data sorted" on first load )
--
warren finnerty      | 388 Greenwich St.
Lehman Brothers      | NYC NY 10013
"Back off man!"      | wfinnert@shearson.com
From: perez@mgr.hjf.org (Charles Perez)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: Re: conditional select sum() based on field question
Keywords: select sum
Date: 14 Aug 92 19:05:51 GMT
Organization: HJF AIDS Research Project, Washington DC

In article <297@praeda.UUCP.UUCP> pete@praeda.UUCP.UUCP (Pete Frehner) writes:
>
>I have a question regarding selecting a sum from a table of amounts and
>depending upon the type of record, either adding or subtracting the amount
>from the sum.  We are using Informix 4.0 ISQL and R4GL.
>
>I could do this in two select statements and the difference would be the
>net amount, but this requires that the data be read twice (once for each
>select statment).  
>
>
>   select sum(amount) into total_credits
>       from orders where order_type = "CREDIT"
>
>   select sum(amount) into total_normal_orders 
>       from orders where order_type = "REG"
>
>   let net_amount = total_normal_orders - total_credits 
>
>
>Is there a way that this could be done in one select statment??  Two select
>statments is no big deal for a small database, but this database contains
>hundreds of thousands of orders.  If the data could be read only once it would
>pick up performance quite a bit.

I would do it this way:

  DEFINE
    rorders RECORD
      type LIKE orders.order_type,
      amount LIKE orders.amount
    END RECORD

  DECLARE corders CURSOR FOR
  SELECT order_type, sum(amount)
  FROM orders
  WHERE
    (order_type = "CREDIT")
    or (order_type = "REG")
  GROUP BY order_type

  FOREACH corders INTO rorders.*
    IF (rorders.order_type = "CREDIT") THEN
      LET total_credits = rorders.amount
    ELSE
      LET total_normal_orders = rorders.amount
    END IF
  END FOREACH

  LET net_amount = total_normal_orders - total_credits

This gives you exactly one SQL query to contend with, and the cursor
shouldn't slow you down. Make sure there is an index primarily on the
order_type field, or it will still crawl!

Hope this helps.


-- 
==========================================================================
That which is necessary is never evil. If an evil seems necessary, look
to your context; that's where its root lies.  - Charles Perez
==========================================================================
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
From: reetz@news.colorado.edu (Mike Reetz)
Subject: Anyone with experience with TASK by SofTouch, Inc. ????
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Date: Thu, 20 Aug 1992 19:33:20 GMT


Does anyone have experience with this product.  ANY comments
are gratefully accepted.

Will summarize if the response is large enough.

-- 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mike Reetz                          boulder.colorado.edu!morse!reetz
ConferTech International            (800) 525-8244 or (303) 235-5378 (voice
2801 Youngfield, Golden, CO 80401   (303) 237-5151 (switchboard)        mail)
From: billd@informix.com (William Daul)
Newsgroups: comp.databases.informix
Subject: The use of comp.databases.informix
Date: 12 Aug 92 22:31:46 GMT
Organization: Informix Software, Inc.
Originator: billd@cheetah

I know the focus of this group is "technical", but is it
appropriate to post press releases here.  To save generating
a lot of discussion here...send replies directly to me or I 
will go with the leaning of the first 5 out of 9 replies.
-- 
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
 William Daul             Advanced Support      INFORMIX SOFTWARE INC.
 4100 Bohannon Dr.        (415) 926-6488 - wk
 Menlo Park, CA. 94025    uunet!infmx!billd  or  billd@informix.com