🚀 go-pugleaf

Followup-To: comp.sys.next.software

I  thought the following  information would  be interesting to people (like
me), planning to  store and manipulate large  data bases  in ASCII,  WingZ,
Mesa, Improv, etc.

My very large (2.5 MB) ASCII data file (100%) can be compressed to  31% its
size.  It expands into about 280%  its size in WingZ  (compress-able to 51%
of the original file size); 900%-1,000% its size in Mesa  (compress-able [I
believe but am not sure here] to about 150%); 310% times  its size in 1-2-3
..wk1  as saved by  Improv (compress-able to  about 100%), and *110%* times
its size in Improv's .imp format  (compress-able  to 39%).  Clearly, Improv
is the   hands-down     winner.  (Unfortunately, Improv  does    not  offer
compressed-save  as an  option, nor does it  offer much  built-in data base
support).

Back to the drawing board for me. Is there a  better data-base package that
can shrink (not expand) vanilla (integer/float/double/char*) data storage,
and offer a spreadsheet like interface to data (to aid changes, browsing, etc),
both  command-line and NeXTStep tools to manipulate data, and  which  costs
<$200?  I   am *not*  interested   in multi-media apps or dtp-like report writing
facilities.

/ivo