CompuServe Messages

Kathy, I have not forgotten you – just been covered up in all the literature that I have received from the CD software folks. I appreciate your help in pointing me toward them. My conclusion is that there are lots of good retrieval engines out there, especially for text and graphics. But there is nothing for fielded data which is _reasonably_ priced. I'm looking at maybe half a dozen copies, so ten grand for software seems a little high. Even the companies which will a put my data into one of these high dollar packages for a per copy royalty are not cheap. One-off CD-ROM's have so much potential – but catch 22 is that the software is not available. My conclusion is that the only way that I can afford my project is to use a general purpose DBMS package like xBase or Paradox. I had hoped to use Alpha Four (xBase). But found that it must write to the data directory, so it would not work on CD's. Paradox and Fox will work (so they tell me). But Paradox inflates the file size tremendously. So I thought that before I try to convert my data to another format, it might be wise to find someone who has already done this. (Yes, I don't like to ask for road directions either, so don't say it <g>). Do you know anyone who has successfully used a general purpose DBMS program on a CD-ROM? And if so, what was the performance like? Regards, John