C# and ISAM

[Robert Schuldenfrei]

Dear NG,



This fall I may try to convert an old MRP-II system from COBOL to C#. I
have been using Microsoft SQL Server while I have been learning C# to hold
the data. This is fine, but if I sell my product I will be forcing my
customers to buy SQL Server. In addition, the original COBOL uses ISAM for
all of its files. It would be cheaper for the end user and easier for my
conversion to use a C# callable ISAM facility. Does anyone know of such a
package? Is there a cheap (or free) one out there? The only "advanced"
feature I absolutely need is record locking.



Am I crazy for wanting to use "old technology?" Should I be looking for a
cheap (or free) SQL package like mySQL. Thanks in advance for any advice.



An "old dude" learning new tricks,



Bob

(e-mail address removed)

 

[Mark Broadbent]

whilst Im all for promoting other products, I must admit I am a bit biased
towards SQL cos I think it is a great product. Please be aware that you
*can* use the SQL MSDE edition for your customers needs. It is free but has
a couple of limitations (i.e. if your product is to be used for lots and
lots of concurrent transactions then MSDE would not be for you) however for
most scenarios it would be fine -additionally your customer can always
upgrade it to full blown sql should their demands on the backend db increase
substantially.


http://www.microsoft.com/sql/msde/
--


Br,
Mark Broadbent
mcdba , mcse+i
=============

 

[Nick Malik]

As another responder has said, you can use a Free version of Microsoft SQL
Server called MSDE.
(it has a few limitations, but not something that you are likely to run into
if your customer segment is the same that could use your COBOL app).

You could use "old" technology by relying on BTrieve as the underlying data
engine. This is essentially similar to using ISAM on the Windows platform.
It is fast, quite capable, and low level (about what you are used to).

You don't gain the real scalability that comes with multi-tier systems based
on SQL, but if your app has been successful as a COBOL app, it may not
require multiuser scalability. You certainly won't be going "backwards" by
using BTrieve. It is quite a capable data format and is directly callable
code (I haven't looked in a while, but they probably have a .NET
interface... you'd have to ask the good folks at BTrieve).

Good luck. This is not all that easy of a transition... there's a fairly
sizable difference between COBOL apps and modern C# apps on Windows.

--- Nick Malik

 

[Robert Schuldenfrei]

Hi Nick,

Thanks for the tip about BTrieve. I remember BTrieve from the old days. I
will look into it. The move from COBOL will not be easy. That is why I
sold off this product (called MCS-3) in 1998 and the people who bought it,
sadly, went bankrupt. I do not need to make a living on the success or
failure of this exercise, it is just for the fun of it. My approach back in
the early 90s was TRANSLATION and that was a failure. Being wiser now, my
approach will be a recode in C#. However, if I can use an ISAM package it
will be easier and cheaper for the marketplace. All of the benefits of
relational databases have been designed away so that the 50 ISAM files scale
very nicely. The COBOL system has no problem working with 50,000 parts in
the Item Master file. The computational ability of COBOL made an MRP run
proceed very rapidly.

Thanks for your help,

Bob