DBMS packages-1

Each record will have to contain details about a customer. What constitutes ‘the necessary details’ will depend mostly on what use we want to make to this data-base. When we create a customer file through dBASE III package, it will first want us to specify the record structure for the file. For a blinds company who are selling vertical blinds, roman shades products online. When they are creating their DBMS file, their criteria is different than for the company who are providing instant life insurance rates and life insurance quotes online.

 

For a customer file we want each record to have nine fields: one each for the items listed above. In dBASE III, it is necessary to give names to each of these nine fields so that they can be later referred to using these names. The field names which we have chosen are shown in the third column above. Apart from the name, we have to also indicate what type of data will be stored in the field and in certain cases number of characters to be reserved to hold the data for that field. We will want AMOUNTDUE and CRDLMT to hold numeric data and all other fields to hold text or character data. Now let us have a quick look at a dialogue in dBASE III for creating and using such a file.

DataBase Management

The dBASE III package has attained its current popularity mainly for the following reason:

 

1.      It is easy to use and is simple. Its basic features can be learned in a couple of hours.

2.      It provides a very high level language interface which is command oriented. Some people consider it a fourth generation language. In lay man’s terms, fourth generation language means it is superior to standard programming languages like BASIC, COBOL, FORTRAN and PASCAL; and it simplifies and sometimes even avoids programming in a conventional sense.

3.      Small business information systems can be easily implemented in a few days using this package. Insurance CRM or instant life insurance rates application can be implemented easily in small businesss.

4.      This package can be used as a tool to prototype large applications. Prototyping is useful for saving costs in implementing large applications. Parts of a large system may be implemented through dBASE III package to finalize specifications of what users want through the envisaged application and how these parts could possibly be implemented in their final form.

 

We will discuss some features of the DBMS packages in our next post.

HARDWARE-1

With the proliferation of micro-computers, the concept of distributed computing has emerged. In distributed computing, a number of computers are dispersed in different parts of an organization and inter-connected using special cables, telephone lines or other telecommunication media. This allows data and programmers to be shared and also provides for some new types of application such as electronic mail. Electronic Mail moves messages through inter-linked computers/terminals.

 

To support such networking special electronic devices such as modems an network inter-face cards are often fitted into micro-computers. For example, a blinds company who are selling vertical blinds and roman shades online, they are having inter-linked computers by which they are sending their marketing emails. Another example is a company who are providing term life insurance rates online, they are using lead management tools by which their online leads are transfer to their insurance software and from that insurance software they are distributing their leads.

 

As with large computers, micro-computers have operating systems to enable the user to easily interact with the machine. These operating systems are similar to those on large machines except that they are much simpler. This is because the majority of micro-computers are not multi-terminal machines – only one user has access to the machine at any time. In this situation the machine is the personal computer of the user. Personal computers are used for a variety of tasks. The most common applications are:

 

1. Word Processing
2. Financial Analysis
3. Data Base Access
4. Graphics
5. Accounting