At 01:18 AM 12-07-00 -0400, you wrote:

> Helen, "minor" correction: IB_WISQL is made by Jason Wharton... I
> only have
>enhanced it a couple of times.

I stand corrected: if I complain about something, Claudio generally takes
credit for the bad code. :)

>There's a problem: usually is the BDE the one
>that reads XBase formats. I know Jason introduced some capabilities, but I'm
>not sure if he targeted Xbase or Paradox, I need to check.

I never used Visual Foxpro, but back in its "code-to-kill" days, Foxpro
could output to fixed-length textfiles or cdt format. The catch is blobs
here, too, though.

> > SCRIPTING vs INTERACTIVE METADATA CREATION
> > There are tools around that let you create tables and add metadata
> > interactively. Just from my own experience, this is the worst way
> > to build
> > an SQL database.
>
>Don't know why. I have used CASE tools to create a db's schema, then
>instruct them to target IB, but I edit the script first to customize it and
>then use it against IB through isql.exe.
>
>
> > You have no documentation; and there is no way to make
> > sure objects get created in the right order.
>
>Maybe you were speaking only about "database editors" or "after CASE" tools,
>not CASE products. With ER/Studio, it seems to address the problem of the
>order in table declarations.

No, I wasn't talking about ER or any "before" CASE tools, I was talking
about ISQL or WISQL. Don't depend on the metadata output to get the
creation order right - it doesn't. For someone who's never dealt with
scripts before, that output is incredibly awful to work with; and it's a
much less painful thing to create the database in visible chunks so you can
easily find the proble when an error occurs.

Yep - invest in a good CASE tool and your documentation is taken care
of. But if (like me) you still believe the best CASE tools are a marker
pen and a paper tablecloth, then your well-ordered scripts, kept under
version control, will be your friend in need. (Of course, that's a very
XX-oriented point of view, isn't it Claudio?)

H.
http://www.interbase2000.org
___________________________________________________
"Ask not what your free, open-source database can do for you,
but what you can do for your free, open-source database."
(J.F.K.)