Chapter A 1 : Introduction to Advanced Revelation

In this chapter you are introduced to Advanced Revelation. Here you can read about the major features of Advanced Revelation and about why Advanced Revelation is the development environment of choice for today’s PC applications. In addition, you will find informa- tion about this documentation set and about the conventions used in these books.

Welcome to Advanced Revelation! You are about to enter a new world of data management, one in which the only limitation on what you can accomplish is your imagination.

Today’s world of information management relies increasingly on the personal computer. Although data may be stored on everything from PCs to mainframe computers, it is the PC that links you as a computer user into the “enterprise-wide” computing that characterizes today’s business.

Advanced Revelation is the perfect data management tool for today. Combining ease of use with power, Advanced Revelation’s application development and management tools allow you to create and use everything from simple customers lists to “mission-critical” company-wide accounting and manufacturing systems.

In addition, Advanced Revelation includes facilities that allow you to access information anywhere in your system. Advanced Revelation’s SQL provides an industry-standard language for data manipulation and Management. And Advanced Revelation’s unique Environmental Bonding capability allows you to access data in the format of almost any product or system, from spreadsheets and CAD drawings to database servers and mainframe computers.

In short, no matter what your information management requirements, Advanced Revelation is the environment of choice. As you work with Advanced Revelation and explore its possibilities, you will find that there is nothing that you will not be able to accomplish.

Advanced Revelation includes a complete array of data management tools. Listed below is a sampling of the tools and utilities that constitute Advanced Revelation’s superior development environment.

In addition to this documentation set, Advanced Revelation features extensive online help. You can press keys almost anywhere in Advanced Revelation to learn more about the current process or to display options and their corresponding keystrokes.

Featuring the most flexible file management system available today, Advanced Revelation puts virtually no limit on how large your files, records, and fields can be. Advanced Revelation’s dictionary-driven database management system stores all information about a file in a central dictionary that can be changed at any time.

A powerful indexing facility allows you to speed your searches and sorts, while enabling you to look up data using any data in a record. A unique feature of Advanced Revelation’s indexes is that they can be updated when your system is idle or by another workstation on a network.

To create your applications, you can use the most innovative development tools available. For example, Advanced Revelation’s Paint tool allows you to design and build an entry window and a file at the same time by simply painting prompts on the screen. You can develop menus, popups, and reports just as easily by filling in prompts in a window.

The application development tools are as powerful as they are simple to use. You can change any aspect of a window or menu by simply editing its “template”. In addition, you can customize all aspects of an application extensively with little or no programming, saving you hours or days of development effort — even for the most complex applications.

Using Advanced Revelation’s reporting tools, you can create almost any type of report that your application will require. R/LIST provides you with columnar reports, while a forms processor allows you to “paint” reports on a screen. A label processor handles almost any type of mailing label, and an extremely powerful merge processor allows you to merge database information with pre-defined letters or other documents.

In addition to other Advanced Revelation data management tools, Advanced Revelation’s SQL puts the power of an industry standard language at your fingertips. Designed to be compliant with the ANSI standard, Advanced Revelation’s SQL offers you powerful features in a language that is easy to learn as well as portable.

If you plan to run applications on a local area network, Advanced Revelation is ready with support for all major networks. Advanced Revelation also provides a wide range of options for coordinating multi-user access to data. One of the most innovative capabilities in any database manager, Environmental Bonding allows you full access to data stored in other formats or other locations. For example, your application can read and write data in dBASE III files, ASCII files, files on a database server, or in a host of other environments.

For applications that require programming, Advanced Revelation makes available R/BASIC, the best database programming language available today. Featuring dozens of functions and commands especially suited to database programming, R/BASIC also includes a compiler, an interactive debugger, a full-screen editor, and other important capabilities.

Your data management needs don’t stop with a single product or application. To assist you with all your needs, a full Advanced Revelation product line is available. Additional products include:

• Advanced Revelation Runtime systems that allow users to execute but not change an application.
• Network Bump Disks that turn your single-user copy of Advanced Revelation into a version capable of supporting multiple users on a network.
• Developer documentation and products, including in-depth information on programming with R/BASIC, filing systems, window processing, and more, as well as interface packages for C and assembly language programming.
• Technical Support, including phone assistance, and the Advantage for Developers program, a package of products for Education and services on for Advanced high-level

Revelation developers. from a worldwide network of Authorized Training Centers.

The documentation for Advanced Revelation comes in a series of binders. The documentation set as a whole is divided into tabbed sections that are identified with a single letter. For example, the section called SQL is section K and is identified by a tab.

Within each section you will find one or more chapters. The chapters are identified with the section letter followed by the chapter number. To use the example of the SQL section again, the second chapter is identified as K2.

A table of contents appears at the front of the first volume of the documentation. There are also individual tables of contents for each section and for each chapter. A glossary and an index appear at the end of the last volume.

Here is a small sample to show you this organization:

Volume I

Section F (Developing an Application)

Chapter F1 (“Building Applications with Advanced Revelation”)

Chapter F2 (“Planning an Application”)

Chapter F3 (“Users and Accounts: Planning Access and Security”) etc.

The following conventions are used in the documentation. Refer to the following as you read, especially if you are reading about TCL, SQL, or R/BASIC commands.

= Continuation. Text is split in the book because of margins, but should be entered on one line in Advanced Revelation. Example:

SELECT COMPANY, ADDRESS, CITY FROM oS
CUSTOMER_TABLE ORDER BY CITY

{} Optional expression. The text or expression in the braces is an optional part of the command or expression. Example:

PAINT {filename} template.name

Choice of expressions. Choose one from the expressions listed inside the elongated brackets. Example:

WRITE record [ox] filevar ... TO

:: Repeat expression. Indicates that the expression or expressions [::] can be repeated one or more times. Example:

CREATE VIEW view {column ::} AS subquery {WITH CHECK OPTION}
CREATE TABLE [column type {DEFAULT value} {column def} ::] {ON vol}

lowercase Variable information. The word in lower case indicates a position that will be filled with a real name or expression when you actually execute a command. (See also Italics.) Example:

LIST filename BY sort_criteria

Boldface Menu option. Boldfaced words refer to the literal names of items on an Advanced Revelation menu. Example:

Choose the option Tools-Files-Indexing ...

italics Prompt names. Names of prompts in Advanced Revelation appear in italics. Italics are also used for variable information if the text around it is already in lower case. Examples:

At the Volume name prompt ...
The name filename is not valid ...

Courier Text Examples or messages. Text in courier indicates an example or a message that you might see in Advanced Revelation. Examples:

LISTDICT filename
Creating DICT.filename