Btrieve® Spring 1996 Developer’s Journal Vol. IV No. 1 THE INDEPENDENT SOURCE OF NEWS AND INFORMATION ABOUT BTRIEVE AND SCALABLE SQL BTI Holds Conferences in the US, Europe Developer Conferences Showcase New Technologies, Market Opportunities, and Partnerships Cannes, France — Btrieve Technologies company plans to position itself in both cur- speed as the guiding design principles. began the year with two well-attended rent and emerging mass markets, stressing a The ball to keep you eye on this year developer’s conferences, one stateside in commitment to its commercial developers will be BTI’s “Client/Server in a Box” strat- mid-January, and a second in Europe at the with a “Client/Server in a Box” approach to egy, particularly on the server side where end of February. Over 250 developers, con- product architecture and licensing, and a Btrieve, as the native database engine for sultants, and VAR’s attended the US confer- long-range strategy to support Internet and the leading network operating system, had ence held in Austin, Texas. Over 100 devel- intranet platforms. No mention was made of previously held a home court advantage. As opers and distributors from across Europe the “middle market” which figured so the gap widens between the out-of-the-box attended the Btrieve Technologies Europe prominently in the projections at last year’s version of Btrieve included with NetWare conference in Cannes, France. Summit conference. and the state-of-the-art releases from BTI, The conferences gave Btrieve Presentations by BTI engineering staff and as Novell’s hegemony in the LAN mar- Technologies a chance to outline new tech- and technology partners included seminars ket is eroded by Microsoft’s NT Server and nology directions and business plans for the on current products including the recently IBM’s OS/2 Warp Server, keeping the server coming year, and to receive valuable feed- released ODBC interface, and previews of in client/server may prove to be the most back from customers. Conference attendees new technologies such as nested transaction challenging task facing BTI over the coming came away with a first-hand preview of new processing, the Inscribe scripting language year. BTI is working to address these issues technology and marketing strategy, and an for triggers and stored procedures, and bi- in partnership with server vendors IBM, opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with directional database replication technology Microsoft, and Novell, and with the VARs colleagues and BTI engineers, support staff, slated to appear in new product releases in and systems integrators who make up the and management. the coming months. The new technology Solution Network Partners. Conference highlights included presen- follows in the “built to be bundled” tradi- tations by BTI management on how the tion, with modular design, compactness and See related stories on pages 4, 15 and 28... John Scudder Executives from Btrieve Technologies met with authorized European Btrieve Distributors during the Btrieve Developer’s Conference in Cannes, France. See page 28 for complete details on the European Conference. Btrieve Developer’s Journal From the Cockpit... Spring 1996: Volume IV, Issue 1 It’s been an exciting quarter here at Btrieve Developer’s Journal and Smithware, to say the least! In November, the senior Staff members of the BDJ writing staff were in Austin, Texas to cover the second annual Btrieve Developer’s Conference. Steve Mook, Publisher: Scott Smith Jim Kyle, Doug Reilly, and I all had a great time covering the Editor: Steve Mook News Editor: Jim Kyle event and this issue of BDJ is in large part a result of what we Product Analysis Editor: Jim Barber learned there. Contributors: Doug Reilly, Jon Saunders In late February, John Scudder, Smithware’s sales and market- Technical Corner: Linda Anderson, Richard ing manager, and I represented Btrieve Developer’s Journal and Arnlold, Michael Beris, Doris Eldridge, Bo Smithware at the Btrieve European Developer’s Conference held in Holland, Sharon Kimball, Cathy Martin, Brett Cannes, France. As the weather was a bit chilly, we decided to McAnally, Chad Miller, Chris Ojeda, Jose actually attend the majority of the conference meetings, rather than Pruneda, Johnson Varughese, Shiva Waldecker, John Scudder live it up on the beach as we had originally planned. The European Laurie Wisbrun, Lance Wolfe Conference was a great opportunity for us to meet face-to-face Publisher Scott Smith poses next to Art Director: Trudy Mook French entertainment sensation with so many of the people who have helped to drive our global Photographers: Al Plotkin, John Scudder Johnny Haliday during the Btrieve business over the past eight years, and to get insights on how the Illustrator: Will Owen Europe Developer’s Conference in European market is taking shape. Circulation Manager: Cindi Gourley Cannes, France. It’s hard to tell One conclusion we brought home from both the US and Administrative Assistants: Diane Kugel, Keli who looks more washed up... European Btrieve Developer’s Conferences was that BDJ needed Jackson, David Babcock to focus primarily on “developer” related issues. For a while during the formative years of BDJ, we Subscriptions debated whether we needed to focus on the Btrieve user as heavily as we focused on the Btrieve developer. But, after all, this is “Btrieve Developer’s Journal” and not “Btrieve User’s Journal.” It Annual subscriptions are for four issues per has become clear, not only from our experience of having worked with many of you over the years, year at $49/year for delivery inside the but also from what we learned through interaction with developers at the conferences, that you real- United States and Canada. ly do dig our down-and-dirty articles on development and technical issues. So, that’s what you can Back Issues: Back issues are available for continue to expect, right here in the pages of BDJ! $20.00 per issue. Contact Cindi Gourley at Another thing you will begin to notice will be more contributions from those who are driving (615) 386-3100 for additional information. the Btrieve technology of the future: Dale Hunscher with behind-the-scenes information about the Advertising development challenges of the BTI ODBC Interface Kit, Mark Andress on how his com- For information about advertising your product pany ThinkNet is helping to shape database or service in Btrieve Developer’s Journal, call replication technology for the next generation Carolyn Lighty, Advertising Manager, at (800) of Btrieve, and others. 685-2403 or (201) 712-0044. At any rate, you’ll begin to notice more How to Contact BDJ and more in our magazine, that we will live up to the “Developer” in our name. Btrieve Developer’s Journal 2416 Hillsboro Road, Suite 201 Nashville, Tennessee 37212 Telephone: (615) 386-3100 Contents... Facsimile: (615) 386-3135 CompuServe: 73173,2731 Austin Developer’s Conference Inside Btrieve - ODBC Email: [email protected] Jim Kyle covers the Btrieve Developer’s Doug Reilly looks at Btrieve’s latest interface Internet: http://www.smithware.com Conference in Austin, including an inter- option, ODBC . 21 Btrieve Developer’s Journal (ISSN 1071-7463) is published quarterly by Smithware, Inc. 2416 Hillsboro Rd., Suite 201, view with Mr. Kogo Shinohara and Mr. Nashville, TN, 37212-5318. Subscriptions are $49 per year for delivery in the US and Canada. Yoshio Tanahashi of Btrieve Japan . 4 New Technology - Nested Postmaster Product Analysis Transactions Doug Reilly explores the nether world of Send address changes to: Btrieve Developer’s Journal, Jim Barber reviews SupportAbility configu- 2416 Hillsboro Rd., Suite 201, Nashville, TN, 37212- 5318. ration maintenance software and looks at nested transactions . 26 the PowerBASIC DLL Compiler. 8 Second Class postage paid at Nashville, TN, Permit #013665. Copyright© 1996 by Smithware, Inc. All rights reserved. With the exception of the “Technical Corner” section, this Btrieve For Windows NT European Conference publication is produced independently of Btrieve Technologies, Inc. Jim Barber takes a real-life look at Btrieve Scott Smith covers the Btrieve European No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the publisher. Developer’s Conference . 28 Smithware is a trademark of Smithware, Inc. in Microsoft Windows NT . .12 Btrieve and XQL are registered trademarks and Scalable SQL, Xtrieve Plus and Microkernel Database Engine are trademarks of Btrieve Technologies, Inc. All other names are the trademark of their respective manufacturers. Technical Corner Smithware Tech Talk Information and insights from BTI . 13 Smithware Product News and Tips . 30 Spring 1996 Btrieve Developer’s Journal 3 user count licensing for server Developers Building on Btrieve at engines, long a key concern of major users, is in the pipeline. Using elec- Austin Conference tronic keys or alternatively physical Austin, Texas — Several hundred surpassed only by Oracle’s 21 percent. diskettes, instant user count upgrades Btrieve developers from at least three Ron Harris, BTI president, then intro- will be available on an additive basis. continents gathered in Austin this past duced the management team to the Licensing will be based on worksta- January for the 3-day Btrieve group. New faces included Ted tion IDs rather than on the potential Developer’s Conference, and observed Doucet, VP of sales, Marc Marshall, number of connections, allowing the future first-hand. Key BTI person- VP of engineering, and Rich Stroum, smaller user counts for specialized nel explained in detail many of the VP of tech support. International rep- applications even when installed on features to be added later this year resentatives when the next version of the included MicroKernel Database Engine appears Kogo in Btrieve and SSQL (scheduled for Shinohara, late 1996 delivery). president of Developers began arriving at the Btrieve conference site, the Stouffer Technologies Renaissance hotel in northwest Austin Japan, and (only a few blocks from the BTI Patrick offices), during the afternoon of Duboisset, Sunday, January 14.