Rick Grehan
I don't think I've ever seen an applications builder that takes the step-by-step paradigm to the extreme as does DataBoss, a Windows database program builder from Kedwell Software (Portsmouth, NH, (603) 431-0536). When you launch DataBoss, you're taken to its desktop window, where--lo and behold--you see a list of steps numbered 1 to 8. Step 1: pick a title for the application; step 2: choose an icon; step 3: choose the data files to be used (or build them, if need be); step 4: construct the windows your application will use; step 5: build a menu to lash it all together--and so on. Boom, boom, boom; and out pops a completed application.
At the level of simply naming steps, this process might seem absurdly simple. But so would a Dickens novel i
f you described it by reading the table of contents. However, each step sits atop an elaborate activity (except for, perhaps, picking the application title) that DataBoss automates, so that all parts of application building are nearly as simple as following the uppermost eight steps. Constructing the data files is a process of selecting field names (column names, if you prefer that term) and attaching attributes to them through dialog-box selections. DataBoss's window designer lets you assemble a window by simply selecting what type of item (push button, data-file field, bit map, or other item) you want and placing it wherever you choose in the window. The menu designer is as close to in situ menu building as you can get. It's as good as the 4GL (fourth-generation language) database front-end systems' form builders I've seen.
What pops out at the end is actually not a complete application; more accurately, it's the C++ source code for the application. You must already have a recent Borland or Microsoft
C++ compiler installed on your system. Just tell DataBoss what kind of compiler you've got, where it is, and DataBoss does the rest. Once you've built the data files, the windows, and the menus, you click on the ``generate'' button.
Having all the source code available means you always have the option of tweaking your application's code. Toward the back of the manual, you'll find a detailed programmer's guide that gives you an inside look at how the system's objects are put together, in case you want to alter the source code. (I discovered another benefit to having the source code around. Any application I built crashed when I ran it a second time. Kedwell's technical-support people recognized the problem instantly and talked me through editing one of the supplied files. I rebuilt the libraries, recompiled, and the problem was solved.)
I could go on about DataBoss: no royalties, multiuser-ready, uses dBase files, your application gets a fully functioning toolbar and query-builder dialog box ``
for free,'' and so on. If you're in the business of building Windows databases and you want a package that puts applications together quickly and easily, plus gives you the luxury of access to the source code, the $299.95 DataBoss is worth investigating.
Illustration: DataBoss generates C++ source code that you can compile and distribute royalty-free.
Step-by-Step Windows Database Development
