#Pro DataTrieve comments?
7 messages in this thread
Has anybody used Professional DataTrieve from Abacus? I don't have a
database program but could put one to good use.
Anyone care to comment on the program?
Malcolm
I haven't used *Professional* DataRetrieve, Malcolm, but do have plain ol'
DataRetrieve.
Aside from the fact that it doesn't want to work on my A3000 and Abacus
says they're not planning a fix, the program serves my admittedly simple
purposes well. My main complaint is with the documentation. No useful
index or Table of Contents and the text itself is often confusing and
difficult to follow.
I'd suggest trying several different products and taking EXTENSIVE test
drives of all. And see if you can get your dealer to accept an "If I don't
like it I can return it" deal.
Bill,
Thanks for your comments. There's no question that I'd _rather_ have a
different package but my dealer has a few copies at a ridiculously low
price.
I'm curious about the "doesn't want to work on my A3000" though. Does it
fail to run at all? Doesn't work under either OS?
Malcolm
Well, I may have spoken out of turn, Malcolm.
Roger's note about the interlace bug caused me to do some DataRetrieve
experimenting here on the 3000. The problem I'd had was that the cursor
couldn't be reliably moved from field to field with the mouse. Sometimes
it'd go where you wanted with a click, and sometimes it'd just disappear.
As it turns out, the mouse problem still exists, regardless of whether the
program's run under 1.3 or 2.04, interlaced or not. However, I have
discovered that I can reliably move the cursor from field to field with the
up and down arrow keys IF I first click in a field. The cursor doesn't
appear when the field is clicked, but hitting one of the arrow keys does
move it from the clicked field to either the next or the previous field,
depending on which arrow key is pressed.
The program runs just fine on my A1000 under KS/WB 1.2, so I suspect the
problem has something to do with the A3000's hardware.
The bottom line is that if I got a very good price on DataRetrieve, I'd
probably buy it again. Keep in mind that I've never needed the additional
power of *Professional* DataRetrieve, so I've not worked with it at all.
– via Whap!
Bill,
Well, thanks for the update. I've actually purchased ProDR now but I
haven't opened the package yet. 🙂 Been too busy with current project but I
expect it will be very helpful for next project. I did get a very good
price. 😉 Thanks for the specifics on the 3000.
Malcolm
I used PDR for more than a year with few problems, it does have some
quirks, and one or two bugs, but what program doesn't.
Unlike Bill's comment on DataRetrieve's docs, the docs with PDR are
pretty good. The program is also fairly intuitive to use, if not to
program, but the docs on the language are pretty good even if they aren't
well indexed.
The three biggest drawbacks to PDR are 1) if you have a data base with
many fields the screen setup is very tedious, but at least it only has to
be done once a file, 2) report generation is both tedious and not well
documented, it takes a lot of experimentation and 3) the program is now a
stepchild — no planned upgrades or improvements.( probably why it's so
cheap)
Consequently it lacks many bells and whistles now found on data base
programs like SuperBasePro4. For example built in transaction lines, or
radio buttons. It also means that the program "feels" different from other
data bases, that is the learning curve if you switch will be higher.
The good news is that since I switched to SBP4 I encountered very few
problems converting my PDR files to SBP4 files. As a matter of fact I am
still using some PDR apps as well as SBP4.
As to OS compatability, while I haven't tested all the features of PDR
on my 3000 (OS 2.0), I have gotten it to run as long as I SWITCH THE SCREEN
MODE TO NON-INTERLACED PRIOR TO RUNNING PDR, otherwise the program blows
up. It works fine on my 2500 (OS 1.3)
Over all PDR is an easy to use and fairly comprehensive data base to
start with. If you can live without the bells and whistles and are willing
to spend some time experimenting, it gives plenty of bang for the buck.
Roger,
Excellent response! Thanks for the info. SBP4 _is_ what I would get if
money were no object; however, I did buy PDR today. IMHO, another serious
drawback is no ARexx. Still, it was insanely cheap.
Thanks again and thanks for the tip about avoiding interlace.
Malcolm