DRTRMRTIC ® AUGUST 15, 1988 A CAHNERS PUBLICATION SPECIAL REPORT: DBMS FatalFlaws InSQL By E.F. (odd Also In This Issue: • Why Management Must Confront the VDT Issue • Contract Programming Is Hotter Than Ever • IEEE Warns on Japanese Supercomputer Threat T utgrow. hen you've got to available in the SAS turn those numbers System. You choose into a presentation, the products you turn to the SAS® System. The need, and enjoy the SAS System includes easy-to­ same easy-to-use lan­ use procedures for charts, guage and syntax in plots, maps, and three-dimen­ each. Whether you sional displays. At a glance, license one product you can grasp detailed statistics, or several, you'll enjoy spot relationships among items, the same high-quality and trace emerging trends. software, training, And when your manager wants documentation, and more, the SAS System lets you You can even use the SAS support we've offered for more customize your graphs and System to analyze your data than ten years. present multiple displays on the before you present them. We've For details, send us your same page for easy comparison. got tools for every kind of name and address. Or call You can produce your graphs analysis - from simple descrip­ a Software Sales Representa­ on terminals, plotters, trans­ tive statistics to advanced tive today. parencies, or slides. regression, analysis of variance, discriminant analysis, cluster­ ing, scoring, and more. SASj RAP And as your needs grow, the SAS System Software Actual grows with you. All the Your r),r Phorte Sy.temll :eaaed tools you need for full " ... ,-J r--../" 4/' ... .-... screen data entry, model­ ~ Phone Syslems purchased ing, forecasting, "what if" SAS Institute Inc. analysis, project man­ SAS Circle 0 Box 8000 agement, optimiza­ Cary. NC 27512-8000 (919) 467-8000 tion, and quality Fax (919) 469-3737 control are The SAS System runs on these minicomputers: Digital Equipment Corp. VAX'" 8xxx and 11/7xx series under VMS:" and MicroVAX II'" under MicroVMS"" Prime Computer, Inc. Prime 50 series under PRIMOSqp; and Data General Corp'. ECLIPSEqp MV series under AOSNS. The SAS System also runs on IBM 370/30xx/43xx and compatible machines under OS, CMS, DOSNSE, SSX, and ICCF; IBM XT/370 and AT/370 under VM/PC; and IBM PC XT and PC AT under PC DOS. Not all products are available for all systems. SAS and SAS/GRAPH are registered trademarks of SAS Institute Inc., Cary, NC, USA. Copyright 01987 by SAS Institute Inc. Printed in the USA. CINCOM Opens Doors For BestWestem. PROBLEM: How tv easily access and "With SUPRA, we really have the best of both As for SUPRA's reliability, Seate has no reser­ update large volumes ofcorporate infor­ worlds," explains Seate. "We get the advantages of vations. "Let's put it this way," he says, "we're run­ a relational environment and, at the same time, get ning our payroll on it. We'd be crazy to do that if we mation vitalfor strengthening image a system that performs very well in a large volume didn't have a high degree of confidence in the system." and facilitating expansion production environment." 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"It's a set of things are running smoothly. tools that is very flexible, very easy to use and learn, and very capable of developing and support­ ffiCINCOMSM Mr. Robert C. Seate ing a wide variety of applications:' The Better The Solution, The Better The Value. Manager, Management Information Systems Best ~stern Internatio1lal, Inc. © 1988 Cincom S»Iems, Inc. mil is. "'gistered trademark <! lnIernaJionaJ Business M_ OJrporfllWn. lax is • trademark 0/ IJjgitaJ Equi/JmenI CorporfllWn. Circle 4 on Reader Card L· I~ U~ NEWS 1 1 Look Ahead Amdahl expects MVS/ESA The first wave of DBMS us­ support to cost more. age is ending. New tasks for 19 Supercomputing IS are at hand, namely, In a new IEEE study made achieving integration. This available exclusively to report examines the state DATAMATION, grave con­ of DBMS today. cerns are expressed about 45 Fatal Flaws in SQL the U.S. supercomputer in­ Part I dustry's ability to compete BY E.F. CODD with Japan. Willie Schatz SQL is the de facto standard explores the reasons why. in DBMSS today. Here, "the 21 Software father of relational technol­ Gary McWilliams investi­ ogy" examines two of the gates the jumble of graphical three flaws he sees in SQL. user interfaces and operat­ 51 All TPls Are Not ing systems vying for devel­ Created Equal opers' favor. Behind the BY STEVEN CANIANO obvious cosmetic differences Different evaluations of lie some substantial issues. OLTP DBMS products with TPI 24 Microcomputers benchmarks don't always The death of Boris produce equivalent results. Naumov, the man oversee­ Herewith, a guide to mak­ ing computerization in So­ ing useful comparisons. viet society, may hinder any With: East-West high-tech joint 53 Clearing the Benchmark ventures. David Hebditch Air probes what's ahead. New TPI guidelines. With: 57 The New Era of DBMS 24 The Structure of the Soviet Integration IS Industry BY DAVID R. BROUSELL 30 Networks Three of every four IS Brad Schultz illuminates a managers surveyed in an ex­ little-known research project clusive DATAMATION poll say into so-called MEMNETS. If they plan to integrate main­ successful, the need for frame DBMSS with those on products to implement con­ pcs and workstations. formance to network proto­ 63 The Traveling Program­ cols may be over. mer's Popular Show 39 Behind the News BY MARY JO FOLEY The recent Suffolk County, Packaged software and sys­ N.Y., mandate for VDT work­ tems integrators were ex­ er "protection" has rekin­ pected to crimp third-party dled the debate over VDT programmers' style, but it safety. Willie Schatz exam­ ain't necessarily so. With: ines how the focus has shift­ 65 A partial list of contract ed to ergonomics and what programmers. the work environment is like at several firms. 74 The DATAMATION/Price With: Vfaterhouse Survey 4 1 Using Ergonomics To Im­ Over 60% of IS execs sur­ prove the Bottom Line veyed expect to increase MIPS capacity. 2 DATAMATION D AUGUST 15, 1988 Editorial o o NEW PRODUCTS Time To Go On 68 Hardware New Teleos Communications AUGUST 15, 1988 The Offensive releases for ISDN switching be­ VOLUME 34 It's neither the biggest nor the richest company in its tween basic rate interface and NUMBER 16 field, yet that hasn't prevented Con Edison froD;1 primary rate interface circuits. THIS ISSUE, 184,089 assuming a leadership position in managing information In Trends: page printers fuel COPIES age workers. Specifically, the 23rd-Iargest U.S. utility nonimpact printer sales. has gone on the offensive in protecting the health of 70 Software employees who use video display terminals, the subject Walker Interactive Systems of Willie Schatz's Behind the News report (p. 39). makes its mainframe financial Not satisfied with steps it has already taken, such software available under IBM's as eye exams and work breaks, Con Ed plans to embark DB2 RDBMS for the MVS operat­ ing system. In Trends: a way soon on an ergonomic training program to teach for CICS users to use the COBOL employees how to avoid screen glare, among other sort verb on-line. things. Unfortunately, several other user organizations 1988 JESSE H. NEAL have taken a defensive posture on vDTs-investing IDEPARTMENTS AWARD sums in lawyers and lobbyists to thwart legislative 4 Letters moves to govern VDT use in the workplace. We find little fault with organizations that oppose 73 Calendar VDT -use laws on Constitutional grounds-they have OOPSLA '88, a conference on every right to oppose government intrusion into their object-oriented programming, is coming up in San Diego. markets. But we can't help wondering whether the money wouldn't be better spent on research and 76 Career Opportunities retrofits. Although more states have rejected VDT -use 88 Advertisers' Index legislation than have approved it-the score is 24 states to nine at this point, according to one association-the Cover Paper Sculpture by Ajin issue is unlikely to go away.