From the May 1993 Bits of Blue
Secretary Report
MINUTES OF 4/14/93 MEETING

By: Jim Clark

The meeting began just a few moments late (at 6:10, to be precise), but it was another good meeting, with quite a nice group in attendance. In addition to a vendor review of an impressive software program, there were some very interesting discussions on items of interest to a great many of us. Once again, our meeting was guided by the astute leadership of our illustrious Prez, Harvey Bruneau.

Quite a few items of interest were discussed during the meeting, including:

That Comp USA is unofficially allowing discounts for members of our group on many items purchased at Comp USA was confirmed by our Prez. A discount is not given on all items, especially low cost items (e.g., DOS 6 Upgrade, floppy disks). However, the savings can be rather substantial on other items; one member received a 20% on a $50 hardware item, for example. On more expensive items, members have reported $40 or more savings. To receive the corporate discount, take your purchases to the Corporate Desk and show your User Group membership card.

There was considerable discussion of DOS 6.0, with varying opinions from our membership. Harvey introduced the subject, reporting general satisfaction with all DOS 6.0 features used thus far by him at Dun & Bradstreet, including MemMaker, AntiVirus, and optional boot. He had not yet used DoubleSpace.

A review of DOS 6.0, and all of its features, sometime in the not-to-distant future would be welcome by all DOS 6.0 users, followed by a seminar to discuss problems experienced and solutions found.

Software Publishing Corporation was good enough to send to us a knowledgeable representative, Paul Tondera, Corporate Account Manager, to give us a preview of their program, SuperBase, Version 2.0 — a fully relational database program for Windows. Paul noted that SuperBase is not something new on the market or in Windows, but that it has been around managing data in Windows for over eight years. Hence, it is not something new with a lot of bugs, as is the case with the new programs now on the market; it has evolved as a well-founded, sound and very powerful database program. I am not knowledgeable on databases and have no basis for comparison, but I can say that SuperBase certainly appeared to me to be very powerful, functional and easy to use.

Among the many features Paul reported and/or demonstrated are: A forms-generating capability; a Quick Reporting feature which produces reports in detail; easy setup and modification of all reports and forms; drag and drop editing; provides for query by example; allows up to 999 indexes per file; provides full multi-media support; imports and integrates sound and video files into SuperBase; uses built-in procedural language; provides automatic recording of macros and can use basic macros and those created in “C”; imports from all the major DB programs, as well as ASCII, and exports in most of the same formats; the forms creator uses predefined fields which simplifies forms creation; includes the capability for merging of mail and label files, and SB allows merging of 2 databases. SuperBase is also network ready.

In some respects, SuperBase 2.0 is the least demanding for hardware capabilities of any of the major DB programs. It will load into and work in a 286 machine, for example. A VGA monitor is required, as is 1 MB of RAM, though 2 MBs of RAM are recommended. And 7 MB of hard disk space is required.

SuperBase 2.0 carries a list price of $795, but has a street price in the range of $500-550. If you already own a previous version of SuperBase, the upgrade price is $149. Those using other DB programs can purchase a SuperBase competitive upgrade for $199.

Many thanks to Software Publishing Corporation and Paul Tondera for an excellent presentation of a great DB program and for your very generous software contributions.

Thanks to the generosity of Software Publishing Corporation and Sunrise Computer, along with the 50/50 cash drawing, there were some very nice raffle prizes. In addition, Sunrise Computer donated quite a number of computer items that were distributed to those who could use them, including printer ribbons, covers, and static guards; these items are not reflected here. Those among us to have the good fortune to win are as follows: