Getting Started with dBASE - dBase IV to 5.7 or 7.5?

Author

dBase IV to 5.7 or 7.5?

Joydeep Chakravarty

2005-12-27, 1:23 pm

I work with a small business that has an old application written in dBase III, upgraded to dBase IV. I have been tasked with resolving network issues (multiple users can't access same tables because we get some file locked errors), and printer issues (ca
n't print to certain printers, I guess because they don't support RAW datastreams).

Can anyone give their suggestions about the simplest way to resolve these issues? It looks like 7.5 will require intensive reprogramming, but will 5.7 solve these problems? Or can they be solved even with dBase IV or dBase 5 for DOS? (I have that as we
ll, although we don't use it.)

Thanks for all your help.

Joydeep Chakravarty
JG Enterprises

David Kerber

2005-12-27, 8:23 pm

In article <#ab9$uxCGHA.1300@news-server>, snazweb-jgfab@yahoo.com
says...
> I work with a small business that has an old application written in dBase III, upgraded to dBase IV. I have been tasked with resolving network issues (multiple users can't access same tables because we get some file locked errors), and printer issues (
can't print to certain printers, I guess because they don't support RAW datastreams).
>
> Can anyone give their suggestions about the simplest way to resolve these issues? It looks like 7.5 will require intensive reprogramming, but will 5.7 solve these problems? Or can they be solved even with dBase IV or dBase 5 for DOS? (I have that as
well, although we don't use it.)

What operating system? If you are running on NT-based OS's (NT, 2K,
XP), then these should be solvable in dBase IV or 5 (with the possible
exception of a few oddball printers, though maybe even them). If you're
still using Win98, you may have to go to a windows version of dBase, and
there's no point in going to 5.7 when 7.5 or 2K are out, since most of
the conversion work is in the user interface which will be comparable
between the two versions.

We were completely unable to resolve some printing issues on Windows 98
with dBase IV, but our mission-critical dBase IV app runs great on
Windows NT, 2000 and XP Pro.

--
Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
newsgroups if possible).

Joydeep Chakravarty

2005-12-28, 8:23 pm

David Kerber Wrote:

> In article <#ab9$uxCGHA.1300@news-server>, snazweb-jgfab@yahoo.com
> says...
(can't print to certain printers, I guess because they don't support RAW datastreams).[color=darkred]
s well, although we don't use it.)[color=darkred]
>
> What operating system? If you are running on NT-based OS's (NT, 2K,
> XP), then these should be solvable in dBase IV or 5 (with the possible
> exception of a few oddball printers, though maybe even them). If you're
> still using Win98, you may have to go to a windows version of dBase, and
> there's no point in going to 5.7 when 7.5 or 2K are out, since most of
> the conversion work is in the user interface which will be comparable
> between the two versions.
>
> We were completely unable to resolve some printing issues on Windows 98
> with dBase IV, but our mission-critical dBase IV app runs great on
> Windows NT, 2000 and XP Pro.
>
> --
> Remove the ns_ from if replying by e-mail (but keep posts in the
> newsgroups if possible).

The OS is Windows 2000 and XP. Actually we were having better luck with printers in Windows 98! Now we can hardly get any printers to work... I don't know much about printing, I guess.

Also will 5.7 resolve the network issues, i.e. can tables be locked on a per-record basis, or opened read-only (allowing for other users to open them read-write)?

Thanks!

Todd Kreuter

2005-12-30, 1:23 pm

Joydeep Chakravarty wrote:
>
> Also will 5.7 resolve the network issues, i.e. can tables be locked on a per-record basis, or opened read-only (allowing for other users to open them read-write)?

It may be that the tables are opened with the exclusive option. In the
code, do you see

use sometable exclusive (or excl)?

If you see the exclusive option, you can remove it so the table can be
opened by more than one user. However, there might be a reason the table
is opened for exclusive use and removing that may result in other
problems.

--
Todd Kreuter [dBVIPS]

Rick Gearardo

2006-01-03, 11:23 am

It is not worth upgrading to 5.7 at this point. There are problems with
printers there also. Take the plunge and upgrade to Plus, in the long run it
will be worth it.

Rick

"Joydeep Chakravarty" <snazweb-jgfab@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:%23ab9$uxCGHA.1300@news-server...
>I work with a small business that has an old application written in dBase
>III, upgraded to dBase IV. I have been tasked with resolving network
>issues (multiple users can't access same tables because we get some file
>locked errors), and printer issues (can't print to certain printers, I
>guess because they don't support RAW datastreams).
>
> Can anyone give their suggestions about the simplest way to resolve these
> issues? It looks like 7.5 will require intensive reprogramming, but will
> 5.7 solve these problems? Or can they be solved even with dBase IV or
> dBase 5 for DOS? (I have that as well, although we don't use it.)
>
> Thanks for all your help.
>
> Joydeep Chakravarty
> JG Enterprises

Sponsored Links