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From:  Trevor Jenkins
Date:  Sun May 7, 2000  4:41 am
Subject:  Re: SW in Databases


On Sat, 6 May 2000 07:02:52 -0700, Valerie Sutton wrote:

> One of those is the PDF format, created by Adobe. With the help of
> either Adobe Acrobat 4.0, or Angus' suggestion of
> GhostWriter-GhostView (a shareware program), we can now convert
> SignWriter files into PDF files. I never knew that until recently,
> when it suddenly dawned on me that the Postscript printing command in
> SignWriter might be our key to more modern software compatibility.
>
> That same Postscript feature might be the clue to exporting
> SignWriter dictionary files into other database software, such as
> Microsoft Excel, or FileMaker.

Althought PDF (and PostScript) are useful bear in mine that they are
intended for one purpose only: putting ink on paper. Okay so the ink might
be a pixel and the paper a screen but still both of them are for producing
the end product. When using PDF and PostScript no assumption can be made as
to proximity of glyphs or even of the inkspots. All you can assume is that
the instructions to create a single page appear before those to create the
next page.

My suggestion is to use SGML, or a derivative of it such as XML, create a
SignWriter document type definition and then capture the structure with
that. But I would say that having been involved in both the SGML standard
and the document manganement market for over 15 years.

> Meanwhile, let's list some well-known standard database programs that
> we could use:
>
> 1. Microsoft Excel....for the Macintosh and Windows (made my Microsoft)

Strictly a speadsheet not a database.

> 2. FileMaker Pro 5.0...for the Macintosh and Windows (made by Claris)
>
> What about Microsoft Access? Is that another database program?

Yes.

> If anyone else has other database software to recommend - please inform us!

Oracle, Ingres, Trip, MySQL, PostGres, rdb, DB2 to name a few. :-) Okay so
these are not PC products. But once SignWriter 5 is released us UNIX geeks
can use it on our preferred platform with our preferrd database(s). But
then one of those is the document management database I helped to sell and
wrote a little code for.

--

<>< Re: deemed!


  Replies Author Date
3341 Re: SW in Databases Valerie Sutton Sat  5/6/2000
3348 Re: SW in Databases Trevor Jenkins Sun  5/7/2000
3352 Re: SW in Databases Valerie Sutton Sun  5/7/2000
3358 Re: SW in Databases Stuart Thiessen Mon  5/8/2000
3362 Re: SW in Databases Angus B. Grieve-Smith Mon  5/8/2000
3367 Re: SW in Databases Stuart Thiessen Mon  5/8/2000
3369 Re: SW in Databases Angus B. Grieve-Smith Mon  5/8/2000
3370 Re: SW in Databases Stuart Thiessen Mon  5/8/2000

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