From: michael kraehe <kraehe@bakunin.north.de>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.announce
Subject: Onyx a copylefted 4gl version 2.29
Date: 31 Jul 1994 02:42:24 +0300
Approved: linux-announce@tc.cornell.edu (Lars Wirzenius)
Message-ID: <31eoh0$jg8@klaava.Helsinki.FI>

	Welcome to Onyx 2.29			 a copylefted sql/4gl

				  Abstract

	* Onyx is my private sql/4gl game, donated to all folks
	  freaks, and gurus who like the idea of copyleft ;-)

	  I've started to write it because the department of enviroment
	  state Bremen had several dos boxes with informix, chrashing
	  frequently, so we decided to use linux as clients as ip
	  becomes stable with 99p6.

	* Onyx has a own transaction manager, which is build
	  by a object oriented predicative parser generator. Just
	  an other game but very usefull as this funny thing also
	  produces header files and manual pages. 

	  Its so posible to parse what I call it "crippled sql" and
	  produce commands for other engines like university ingres
	  or even gnu awk.

	  If Y use a real sql engine, Y'll get their "real" sql of
	  course and not my crippled one ;-) 

	* Main goal of the transactionmanager is to implement a protocol
	  for connecting applications to a database in a vendor independent
	  way. Informix, Ingres, Postgres, Yard, GAWK, Shql are now supported,
	  and others are planned.

	  So any application capable to telnet to port is able to use
	  my protocol which is documented in a rfc-like style.

	* Onyx has a 4gl which is more a shell, but unlike other shells
	  knows about tables, transactions, masks and menus.

	  Onyx is designed by the Model-View-Controller paradigma,
	  so tables are the model, masks are the views and transactions
	  are the controllers which can be bound to a input field,
	  a menu, function keys or the change of the current record
	  in a cursor.

	* Unlike other 4gl's Onyx dosnt hide the system, so its easy
	  to export or inport from pipe and use the bunch of tools
	  *nix have. E.g. I'm using a pipe to "gawk | groff | lpr"
	  to print my bills, or a pipe from "tar | gawk" to manage
	  my tapes.

	* Copyleft is a chance that good programmers dont need to
	  work for a big company, or become a slave of their distribution
	  chanels.

	  Linux and Onyx is a chance for database application programmers
	  to sell their solutions and support to the customers without the
	  need to pay a lot to the big companys for using their tools, and
	  listen hours to "please hold the line" if they need support.

				News in 2.29

	* dynasel as a new import statement to make selecting much more
	  user friendly, see manual page for transaction grammar.

	* fixed bug in SqlGawk when deleting everything.

	* the example application/fakt now looks realy nice.

				News in 2.28

	* Directory structur and configuration redesigned.

	  Make config gives a editor (vi) to edit configuration
	  which will be parsed by awk to produce the files.
	  Trouble with old .C files and missing .h files solved

	  (i hope ;-)

	* A lot of work arounds, for C++ related bugs in GCC > 2.4
	  Should now compile with gcc 2.5.8 and i hope above.

	* Yard now seams stable, lot of trouble with permissions
	  in sharded memory (I hate SysPfeifDrauf, but I dont want
	  to translate this german joke ;-)


				News in 2.27

	* First binary relase just for test at wowbagger.

	* Now supporting Yard as a comercial database engine availabe
	  for linux.

	* Some hacks for multiple cursors in one mask. See app/fakt
	  as a example. Needs more hacking for displaying them as
	  row's and columns, and mixed in a mask.

				How to get it

	V32bis: bakunin.north.de 		 +49 421 870523
	ftp:    wowbagger.pc-labor.uni-bremen.de pub/unix/databases

				------------

	For further information take a look into the doc directory,
	be warned some docs are produced while compiling.

	If Y realy want to use it send mail to

		<kraehe@bakunin.north.de>

	If Y like to donate beer or postcards, send them to :

		Kraehe
		Karl Toma Allee 4

		28215 Free Republic Weidedamm III
		      Bremen/Germany

	If Y like to donate money, send it to :

		Michael Koehne
		Sparkasse Bremen
		Bankleitzahl : 290 501 01
		Konto        : 3189 3019

-- 
" ceterum censeo MSDOS delendam esse " sagt der Guru und krault seinen Bart

	kraehe@bakunin.north.de 

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