(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Stuffkeeper (suggested by smokey)
I will check it, link seems died.
Death everywhere, since a long time,.. How many Linux programs left our world without any care.
Ghost web sites were not cleant due lack of time , so many Puppies to born, like Barbie dolls.
Tellico installed ! yes. (see above)

I came up with a way to make filesystem based databases take up significantly less space (at the expense of lookup speed) ... namely using empty files in the database directory for each field and then using appropriately named hardlinks for each value
The problem with this method is that it gets exponentially slower with each additional field because each entry has to be checked to see if it is the right field. So only use this method if you have a large number of records with a small number of fields or if the max number of records/data is more important than the speed.

technosaurus wrote:I came up with a way to make filesystem based databases take up significantly less space (at the expense of lookup speed) ... namely using empty files in the database directory for each field and then using appropriately named hardlinks for each value

Code: Select all

\_DATABASEDIR
 \_CONTACTS
   |-FirstName
   |-LastName
   |-NickName
   |-Address
   |-Phone
   \_Record 1
     |-Brad (hard link to ../FirstName)
     |-Conroy (hard link to ../LastName)
     |-technosaurus (hard link to ../NickName)
     }-...

The problem with this method is that it gets exponentially slower with each additional field because each entry has to be checked to see if it is the right field.

Code: Select all

for ENTRY in $somedir; do
[ "$FIELD" -ef "$ENTRY" ] && return "$ENTRY"
done

So only use this method if you have a large number of records with a small number of fields or if the max number of records/data is more important than the speed.

Hi.

Why am I associating zip or lzip with your idea? It came by itself!
Like in: unzip -> process - re-zip.

Also, way back when, a fixed file of x Kb's was allotted for the db, and
the db was structured any which way wthin that Kb allotment.

Don't pay attention, I'm just thinking out loud.

BFN.

musher0

This link still works.
ftp://ftp.br.debian.org/pclinuxos/pclin ... 10.src.rpm

Pelo wrote:Stuffkeeper (suggested by smokey)
I will check it, link seems died.
Death everywhere, since a long time,.. How many Linux programs left our world without any care.
Ghost web sites were not cleant due lack of time , so many Puppies to born, like Barbie dolls.
Tellico installed ! yes. (see above)

musher0 wrote: Why am I associating zip or lzip with your idea? It came by itself!
Like in: unzip -> process - re-zip.

Also with a squashed and layered file system, you could make the changes live in a different file system than the archived version. This way, you can make it so that if the system goes down at any point the most you lose is one day's work.

Moose On The Loose wrote:

musher0 wrote: Why am I associating zip or lzip with your idea? It came by itself!
Like in: unzip -> process - re-zip.

Also with a squashed and layered file system, you could make the changes live in a different file system than the archived version. This way, you can make it so that if the system goes down at any point the most you lose is one day's work.

That is the one downside of hard links... they can't span filesystems.

I have the stuffkeeper file hanging around, as well if anyone needs it.

Hello everyone.

While waiting for our very own Puppy DB to be written, polished and
published, if you need to organize data, here's a link that you may
find useful, and which is quite interesting generally.

I don't know this person, but I thank him/her warmly for keeping some
very good stuff available. As it happens, (s)he is recommending
PuppyLinux on another page as one of the preferred support OS's to run
legacy apps on DOSBox and/or Wine.

Back to databasing needs, this means that you'll need to install DOSBox
(again, thanks to the DOSBox developer are in order) on your Puppy, but
it may be worth your while. Some of the database applications listed on
the manmrk page haven't been replicated and cannot be found to this day
on any other platform, even ours. This includes xbase, nanobase,
wampum, and any manner of collection that you can imagine, from
addresses to invoices to stamps to StarTrek to videos, etc.

Enjoy!

musher0

Thank you, musher0, looks very interesting.

tallboy

wow ...nice link. I learned dBase way way back when Hard drives in a PC did not exist. Dual 5.6 floppies with MS-DOS running off of drive A:

I recently installed DosBox on a high end Mac OSX machine for a machine tool company that uses to this day a MS-DOS database system A4V7RT. Funny thing is how fast DosBox runs this database on Puppy Linux. Blazes...but printing is a little challenging, the database itself when copied to DosBox virtual drive ran immediately. The client was ecstatic...the company has used this database since the 80's and after finally giving up the DOS machine after years of use and a final breakdown. Company upgraded the machines to Apple Mac, the advice of some IT firm. When the owner realized the true and tried database did not work he searched for somebody to get the thing going. I just happened on the case after none of the pros came up with a solution and told them there is a way...very inexpensive called DosBox....

Hi rockedge.

Nice success story!

Yeah, although DOSBox was initially meant to keep old DOS games running,
it's doing a great job with the more serious stuff, too.

BFN.

musher0

Not trying to hijack the thread...but it seems there may be some folks on the forum that are old enough to remember a CP/M then DOS based flat file database called DataStar(InfoStar) made by MicroPro(The WordStar folks).

There was a 16 bit DOS version that should run under DOS-BOX, and you can do a lot with the application....If anyone has it, I'd love to experiment with it under DOS-Box in Puppy.

Even better, throw together a nice bash program which would do the same...

tlchost wrote:Not trying to hijack the thread...but it seems there may be some folks on the forum that are old enough to remember a CP/M then DOS based flat file database called DataStar(InfoStar) made by MicroPro(The WordStar folks).

There was a 16 bit DOS version that should run under DOS-BOX, and you can do a lot with the application....If anyone has it, I'd love to experiment with it under DOS-Box in Puppy.

Hi tichost!

I don't know about your DataStar/InfoStar, but DataPerfect is still
available! (And I still can't understand any of it!)

BFN.

musher0

@ tlchost -- try these --

https://winworldpc.com/product/micropro-datastar

...and, for CP/M-80 (3rd link down under "Text")...

http://pcsauro.altervista.org/CPM.PHP

starhawk wrote:@ tlchost -- try these --

https://winworldpc.com/product/micropro-datastar

thanks

Hello all.

Here is the basic structure of a CLI database that uses awk. (Run < dos2unix > on
it first, otherwise you'll get errors.) It's to tally students' results, but it can be developed
into any kind of database -- if one has the talent for it.

And look more closely, people, your Puppy already has three DB programs included:

1) gnumeric -- use it to create a 2D sorted list of anything, with as many fields
as you like. You don't need to use a spreadsheet only to do calculations, you know.

2) notecase -- you can create a template for say, a daily organizer with various
hours of the day and perhaps a theme for the day and some comments at the
end of the day, and clone it as "children" for other days.

Both of the above could be used to create templates to inventory collections of any
kind: CD's. movies, books, tools in your shed, flower seeds for your garden, etc.

(Don't forget to save your templates,eh?)

3) For a names and address database, of course, osmo already has one (as
well as seamonkey, if your Puppy comes with the seamonkey browser).

I hope the above will help you with your databasing needs.

musher0

Databases are really not a success in Puppy. The reason is not the bad quality of the proposed database, but that the forum has no interest, that is not their cup of tea
I gave up.
I have just a few ones for personal usage, managing my devices as Pendrives and pupsaves inside, and managing my ISO files.
Gnumeric can do everything, Osmo, sqlitemanager, symphytum make database too, in a more complicated way, as MSaccess by Microsoft.

All my life, at the office, i fulfilled databases, where i wrote the work done on everything : aircraft, machines, screws, paints, and time spent doing that. But i had the boss surveying me... and paying my wages.
In Puppy, nobody will pay me for that.
sqlitestudio last version
Old fashioned : An exercise book, a pencil, an eraser, and a pocket calculator

Hey, pelo,

Let's go and have a beer together!
We'll weep over the lack of interest for databases from our fellow Puppyists!
We know how powerful and useful DB's can be. They don't! We are the wise ones!

Cheers, my friend, cheers!



Then we'll flex our elbows and start a beer database!



BFN.

musher0

musher0 wrote:Hey, pelo,

Let's go and have a beer together!
We'll weep over the lack of interest for databases from our fellow Puppyists!
We know how powerful and useful DB's can be. They don't! We are the wise ones!

You two have not cornered the market on databases....I'm one who really likes them...and fondly remember beta testing dBase III and IV....and then compiling applications with Clipper.

Some of the stuff I did is still in use by non-progressive, luddite business folks.