Amiga Computing - Commodore Is Awesome

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84 SOFTWARE ou know, I've tried a few database programs in my time, but very few of them ever seem to attain that fine line balance between ease of use and power. Mostly you have one end of the scale tipped to one side at the detriment of the other To easy to use and they often seem to lack any real power. Too powerful and they become overly cryptic with masses of commands and features hidden away within an ominously imposing and large manual, that has a page count that would make the encyclopaedia Brittanica blush. Yes, there are very few which can claim to maintain their footing between these two extremes. Twist 2, from the ever prolific HiSoft, is one of them, however. Versatility is one of Twist 2's strengths. allowing you to organise information easily and quickly and to manipulate it using some extremely powerful functions and features. Any project from a simple card-file-type address book or a complete, integrated sales system with relations between many other database files are easily achieved using Twist 2_ Creating and using a database generally consists of creating fields containing specific data which is collected into records and then organised into forms. The user can then access, search and generally process this organised data in many weird and wonderful ways using various functions and features built into the database. A quick scan of the reference section of the Twist 2 manual is evidence enough to realise you have a comprehensive and powerful suite of functions and features at your ingertips_ Thanks to the ARexx interface. those requiring even more power can turn their hand to this programming tool to create Oft*. • sa• -• • • • 1E11110-4— NOW= 'Z.—. letZlet14-1-4-= Wiirt-sIZ:Z*. *Z. — , 6Opp•••• • • • • m. E t t l i 4 = 0. •1 • • • m . , • • • •-•- MRS tkr•t--- trat.lira.1 3 yr.— Frequently-used re port proc c a n be sa ve d out to disk for quick a nd e a sy a cce e s - r e e • - • Looking good Presentation of your data is an important factor in how easy to read and informative your records look. Twist 2 allows you to easily create the look of your database via the Form editor. Using the mouse, simply click and drag the various form objects into position. sizing them to your requirements. These form objects include database Fields, Text for adding informative descriptions on the form. Box. which allows you to provide a visual indication of grouped Items. Image, to enable you to display icons on the form and, more Interestingly. File objects. File objects are quite a powerful feature within Twist 2 and allow you to use external files thanks to Workbench's Datatypes feature. Such external files can Include !FT' pictures, sound samples and any other filetype supported by the Datatype. Some of these form objects can also have attributes such as colour, allowing you to create a visually informative and even aesthetically-pleasing database. Amiga Computing MAY 1995 twi5t and Using tha report aditor, you can da•ign the way in which your data i• formatted in a report Me even more features and functions. The basic building block of a database is its fields, which are specific data elements of a specific data type. Twist 2 has four main types of data which are text, numbers (integer or floating point) or a calendar date. The mark of a quality database program is In what functions and processes can be applied to these fields. Twist 2's real power stems from its comprehensive array of functions which include statistical, boolean, geometric, text string and conditional functions - more than enough for most applications. CALCULATIONS You can assign a mathematical process to fields to automatically calculate figures_ For example, say your database has a floating point field called Value which holds the price of a certain product excluding VAT. However, you want to be able to include VAT should the need arise_ Therefore, you assign a field called VAT to be a floating point number which can either hold the number 0, for no VAT or 17.5 for the current rate. You would thus edit the Value field to contain the expression (Total • (VAT 100)) + Total, which will give the full price including any VAT if present. Although a somewhat simple example. the range of functions and possible expressions is almost unlimited_ Other field functions that can be applied include validation, which ensures the correct data is being entered. An example of this would be the VAT field. Obviously, the only values valid here are either 0 or 17.5. To ensure the operator cannot enter any incorrect figures, this field could be validated using the expression VAT =-0 II VAT =17.5_ In English, this expression is essentially saying that the VAT field can only have the number 0 OR (expressed as the II characters) 17.5 in it, and anything else is just not on! Thankfully, for those who are currently scratching their heads at the above expression, there is a complete reference section in the Twist 2 manual which describes aN toe various symbols and mathematical opera tors. If, after reading this, I can get the gist cd it, anybody can. There are also five attributes which Team 2 can assign to a field. These are Not edrtable (pretty self explanatory), Required - which means the field must have data entered into it, Fixed - meaning once data has been entered, no further calculation at validation will be performed - Zero - empty. forces a field to a zero value if no data is present - and the last attribute. Fille_ brings up a pop-up list which displays three settings. Fixed length. Compressed and Virtual, These are very useful when your database starts to attain mammoth proportions. When you save your database, every field and record is saved to disk. The default setting is Fixed length. which means all parts cd every record in the database, whether al characters are used or not, are saved to disk. If you have quite large text fields, the size of the database can rapidly become extreme, taking up copious amounts of valuable disk space. This problem can be avoided by the use of the Compressed option. If a field is set to compressed it is not stored in the main database file but in a second file which contains all the other compressed fields that happen to be present within the database. The obvious drawback, of course, is that the information takes a little longer to retrieve because Twist 2 can't immediately find it in the database file. The final setting is Virtual, and no, Twist 2 doesn't come with a VR headset. The Virtual setting stores nothing at all in the database file; instead the content of the field is computed every time the record is used from the calculation attached to the field. Fields can also be Indexed, which means all values for a field are contained in a separate file and can be set to either ascending Anital Database •—••• NO W. 1 1 0 , •••••• = • — • f r t , m . ctrskli i F 4 s . - P l o r 111 1 H 111114 ihnik •-• tw 01“•••••••••••••• _ dna., ad A gre e t e xa mple of just wha t you ca n a chie ve using Twist 2 . This is a da ta ba se for Ow Amine t CD-R011, comple te with built-in file extractor •
ist I — ta ta or if le, 30 ur th 'tot 311 to ie Be of 2 31 5 h •41711•1 rigor= " W N W = r cruiL=T - psee — tw, m u ! This I . whe re you de sign the la yout of your re cords I ncluding the a bility to ha ve gra phics, buttons a nd boxe s to give it tha t profe ssiona l look ;.1 r u t I ;mks or descending order. Once you have all your fields created, it's time to start entering your data. Twist 2 can display your fields in one of two ways, as a record form or list. A record form will display one record at a time whereas a list will display multiple records on one screen row, with the columns defining the Buttons at the top of the screen allow you to select whether you wish to Query (or search) the database as well as add, edit or delete records, Two arrow buttons allow you to browse through records one at a time, or you can use the arrow keys on your Amiga's Keyboard GOOD RELATIONS Twist 2 is a relational database which means you can build relations into your database forms. Simpler databases are generally termed 'flat-file', which means their forms simply consist of the fields within the one database file. Using Twist 2 you can create fields whose contents can be found in another database file. This provides for a more powerful and highly efficient database structure. Relational databases are extremely useful in areas such as a sales system, where you may have various departments or people handling areas such as stock, orders and customers. They allow you to create relational fields within records and these fields get their information from separate database hies. Its quite possible to have all the information to hand in just one big database file, but this would obviously be overly complex to create, would make searching unnecessarily slow and would probably be very cumbersome to maintain_ It would be much easier to have separate database files which could be integrated into each other, and this is exactly what relational databases allow. A good example of this would be for a mail 1. order firm who regularly send out promotional leaflets on their stock. Obviously, such a firm would have separate departments dealing with stock control and ordering, as well as customer details. It is decided that a promotional leaflet is to be produced detailing a new range of software for the Amiga and this leaflet is to be sent off to their customers_ The firm also deal in PC and Macintosh software so they will not want to target these customers for the promotional run. Using Twist 2's relational features, a separate database dedicated to producing the required information for the promotional run could be created, REQUIREMENTS This database would allow the user to search the stock database for machinespecific software and search the customer database for households with the required computers, thereby producing the required data for the promotional leaflet. Such versatility and efficiency would be difficult to achieve using a simple flat-file database. Because of the demands on the Amiga this little powerhouse of a database provides, such as support for datatypes, it will only work on Arnigas with Workbench 2 or above. Although you can probably coax Twist 2 to run on a 1Mb floppy-based system. you won't be able to do much with it. Hence, a hard disk and memory upgrade are highly recommended if you are to get the best from it. Twist 2 is powerful. fast, easy to use and the most versatile database application available for your Amiga, if you are intent on injecting some kind of organisation into your life, look no further. IrEl!!!! ' Workbench BL AC K Ease of use 10 Implementation 10 Value for money 9 Overall 10 Re co gallEll EtIafl5 get5 in a Ilille nuer — Itikt a, one of the be5t relational — databa5P afifikat10175 for the Ilmiga — RANI The bottom linP Product: Twist 2 Supplier: HiSoft Price: E99.95 Phone: 01525 718181 Twist 2 can be confi gured to use Your database can be displayed in two ways. Either one record at a time or as a n e ntire list of records When it comes to querying your database (a fancy way of saying search', you can use simple text searches or powerful expressional searches Hidden away in the rn o f features which Twist 2 provide. is a useful mai:merge feature Amiga Computing MAY 1995 A M . any available screen mades as welt as custom or sta nda rd I n* requesters Once yOu PUB VO created your fi elds and designed the layout of your record forms, it's time to enter some useful data SOFTWARE You can create your own database and report fi le icons for quick and easy access from the main screen Ill n e e r tints e s s usrelsone esesse m slot. It riotwirs Naos at tub I it s‘ room [i t. s [ . Nt e. wc t t r s e0 m0 17 / 0- A0ro t 0 m a wo Nmr U o- e— - s e l f y Somber • 2 f [ l . , I l• te• 211E414/ tfrt. 4 6 0 For T .,.....•••••••••••••••• _.11 -4 1 1 '1 alto mit...k..1 tv . •• = •• 4 •• = E4 e w=11:17:S z. : r -' . a 4 l ; ? T A 85
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