HELP - Paradox or Interbase

[Jean-Philippe Dumas]

Hello,

I begining to wroke with Delphi 2.0 and I need to developp a database to
run on Windows 95 and Novell Netware. With database is better to use???

I begin with Paradox, is this good for a small network of 2, 3 or 4
station max. How about Interbase that come with Delphi ??? What append
in Paradox if two people ask for the same database, the same record ???

Thanks for all the help!!!
Send me copy by e-mail: dum...@total.net
Jean-Philippe
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[R. W. Rodolico]

>With database is better to use???

I like Sybase SQLAnywhere, though it is a real pain to get installed.
However, it is worth it since it is a true SQL database, and you can get
a DLL that you can distribute with your application so that the end user
does not need to purchase an additional product.

> I begin with Paradox, is this good for a small network of 2, 3 or 4
> station max.

Paradox tables work just fine. Unfortunately, they tend to leave the
record locking files (*.lck) laying around if there is a crash or gpf or
something. I have not tried it with the new version of datafiles,
however, so this may be fixed. The upside is that there is absolutely
no cost involved to use paradox tables, and it has some nice features
like referential integrity, a rather nice collection of column types,
and delphi understands its structure. The down side is the row locking
problem I mentioned, and the fact that it does not have any filtered
indexing, a real boon for fast access to your data. It is also hard to
fix broken paradox tables.

>How about Interbase that come with Delphi ???

I wouldn't touch it. Borland appearantly doesn't watch the competition
very closely. Sybase is slightly better than interbase, even though it
doesn't "naturally" interface with Delphi (you have to use ODBC to
interface with the BDE). But, the fact that you have an upgrade path
from small stand-alone machines to full client-server applications, at a
reasonable price makes it worth while. With SQLAnywhere, you buy the
package once, then include the DLL with your application and you don't
have to add any cost in to the end-user. With Interbase, you MUST
purchase additional licenses for its use, no matter if it is a
stand-alone application on a single user machine. Another downcheck is
that you must buy an additional copy of Interbase in order to get the
ODBC driver, which is necessary to access the tables with 3rd party
tools, such as CrystalReports or something. Also, Sybase has very good
customer support . . . Borland's sucks.

> What append in Paradox if two people ask for the same database, the
> same record

Paradox will lock the row if one of the users is editing it. You can
write an exception handler in Delphi to keep trying to lock a row locked
by another user until either the row becomes free or you time out

BTW, don't ignore dBase files. They don't have quite as robust a set of
data types, but dBase is THE standard amongst micro database files, and
this gives your users a lot of power to do additional reports, etc...
--
ro...@onramp.net
R. W. Rodolico
Daily Data
Post Office Box 140465
Dallas TX 75214-0465