🚀 go-pugleaf

A couple of years ago while finishing my MS from Boston University, I wrote
a simple relational database manager for the Atari 800/etc. called RDBMS/AT.
Due to the 48K memory limitation and slow processor I wasn't able to include
a lot of the functionality that one would expect from a DBMS.  However, the
package, which consists of subroutines that one includes with his or her
application code, is very useful.

I was thinking the other day that with the advent of the ST, we finally have
a machine that can do some powerful database functions.  So, I'm proposing
in this mail that interested persons combine forces to produce a powerful
public domain database package for the ST.  Once it is available, people could
use it as the basis for their application programs.  Because it is in the
public domain, it would be free for all to use and could evolve with the
growth of database technology.  I'm not thinking of a finished package like
DBASE III but of subroutines that provide database primitives and thus
could form the nucleus of finished programs.  If enough people are involved,
a common design could be implemented in several languages.

So if you are interested, send me mail.  I don't have nor plan to get a
ST (alas my budget has higher priority needs), but I am willing to collect the
names of interested "hackers" and help get the idea started.  Also, I would
like to be involved with the design (I'm not a database guru but would
contribute what I can and would learn from all involved...)

Allen Leigh, DEC
...decvax!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-cache!leigh

p.s. if any of you 8-bitters would like to look at RDBMS/AT as a tool for your
software development, send me mail.  I have a formal release from DEC and
its ok to give it out to anyone.