Discussion on:

SQLBase 8.1 provides alternative to relational database systems

What the article had was good in what it covered, but maybe a little long on how to start it up.

What really lacked is the level of support the product has for the various features such as foreign key support, stored procedures, etc. I would love to see builder.com come up with a set of features that databases should have, and then use that as a framework for a feature review.

Such a list does not have to list every possible feature there is, but could list ones that developers seek first. That would be a great complement to the article.

SQLBase is a good, if not great, product (the same for the other flagship Gupta product: SQLWindows). Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Although it's nice to see any kind of info on alternative RDBMS', I agree with mattohare that a more thorough evaluation of features would be useful.

Maybe a follow-up is in order?

I worked with it for about 3 years in versions 6.x and 7.x. Stored procedures and triggers are supported but the DB language is extremely clunky and nothing like as elegant as Oracle's PL/SQL or Java stored procedures. Support for foreign keys is asextensive as you'd normally need. Oracle-style constraints weren't supported and nor were sequences.

It's not really a "zero-admin" database. Like most it needs defragging. For a busy DB server I recommend once a week. If zero admin is important, consider Borland Interbase...may be a better option.

Connectivity is okay though comms bugs have caused the server to freeze in 7.x.

Vendor tool support is relatively poor. If you're coming from Oracle you're in for a shock. SQLBase had some nasty bugs up to and including 7.x (pinned log files, etc). Technical support was poor in the UK but much better in the US.

SQLBase used in CNN, BBC, NBC, etc. There are probably better alternatives around, though. V8.1 may be better but from pastexperience I'd have to be very sure before selecting it for a new product.