Borland Releases New Tools Linking Languages with Paradox
 
Microbytes Daily News Service
Copyright (c) 1989, McGraw-Hill, Inc.
While several companies offer libraries of database routines for
use with Borland's Turbo Pascal or Turbo C, Borland itself last
week announced a set of tools that will allow programmers to
build database applications almost as powerful as those created
with Borland's Paradox database manager. The new library will
form a unique bridge between Borland's language products and its
star application, Paradox.
 
The new Paradox Engine is a library of routines that allow C
programmers (and eventually Pascal programmers) to write custom
applications that make use of a relational database, that can
take advantage of networks, and that are compatible with Paradox
databases.
 
The heart of the Paradox Engine is a custom API (application
program interface) that consists of 70 C function calls that
allow C programmers to create, read, and write Paradox tables.
The Engine supports primary and secondary indices, as well as
either sequential or ISAM access of records. Rob Dickerson, vice
president of product development, summed up the engine's
capabilities by saying it "bolts real-world database power to C
programs." The Engine is essentially an extension to PAL (Paradox
Application Language) in Paradox. It allows programmers to "de-
velop applications that couldn't be done in PAL," Dickerson said,
but it isn't a "PAL compiler."
 
One of the most intriguing aspects of the engine is that it fully
supports Paradox's existing multiuser "concurrency," that is, its
ability to have multiple users access the same data at the same
time. This helps programmers develop sophisticated network
applications. At the Boston introduction last week, Borland
showed four different applications (all hooked together on a
Novell network) using the same data concurrently.
 
The Paradox Engine requires a sparse 50K to 75K of RAM (depending
on which APIs are used), and it currently supports Borland's
Turbo C, Microsoft C, and IBM C. It's scheduled to be available
sometime during the first quarter of 1990. Borland president
Philippe Kahn said a version that supports Turbo Pascal will
become available "within six months," and that OS/2 and Windows
versions "will follow later." He also said that future versions
of the Engine will offer additional APIs to "bring out more and
more of the functionality of Paradox." And Kahn added that
Borland is "considering an SQL version."
 
The Paradox Engine will be available for an official price of
$495, but registered purchasers of any Borland product will be
able to obtain it for $295 for the next 90 days. Unlike Paradox,
which requires its developers to purchase a run-time license for
PAL applications that they sell, the Paradox Engine includes an
unlimited run-time license, allowing developers to distribute
their applications with no license fees.
 
Dickerson admitted that the Paradox Engine, because of its unique
(and hard to explain) position as a bridge product, is "going to
initially be a hard sell." Borland will market it first to small
developers as a "sophisticated toolbox," but later will mount a
heavy push into large corporations, he said.
 
Contact: Borland, 1800 Green Hills Rd, Scotts Valley, CA
95066; (408) 438-8400; fax (408) 439-9344.
 
                             --- Stan Miastkowski and Rich Malloy
 
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