Newsgroups: rec.games.int-fiction
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From: jrs@netcom.com (John Switzer)
Subject: Re: Infocom question - Cornerstone?
Message-ID: <jrsC7yLBs.4JI@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
References: <stern6.738779892@husc.harvard.edu> <blasius.738802936@gmd.de> <stern6.738811316@husc.harvard.edu>
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 1993 20:09:28 GMT
Lines: 31

In article <stern6.738811316@husc.harvard.edu> stern6@husc10.harvard.edu (Michael Stern) writes:
>blasius@gmd.de (Volker Blasius) writes:
>
>>There's a demo of Cornerstone in the archive:
>>ftp.gmd.de:/if-archive/infocom/csdemo.zip (and of course in
>>wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/if-archive/...)
>
>.zip suggests that this demo is for IBMs. I can get my hands on an IBM
>emulator for my Mac, but would just as soon get a verbal description of
>what the program does -- I'm just curious.

I've got a copy of Cornerstone, which I bought at the "bargain" price 
of $99, discounted from the $400+ original price. It's a relational 
database that lets you draw forms on the screen and then use them to
view and manipulate the data. It's very flexible - you don't have to 
declare sizes of your files beforehand, and it stores the data in a 
very economical format. For example, you can specify enumerated fields - 
you setup a file that has a certain number of options (company names, 
for example), and you can then refer to those names in other files. When
those other files store the company name, they do so as a binary pointer
to enumerated file. It has other ways to save on space.

I'd bet that if Infocom didn't price Cornerstone at $400+ price level at
first, they'd have done a lot better. Unfortunately, nobody who had those 
kinds of bucks weren't willing to give up their Dbase, Revelation, and 
Rbase for a database which didn't even have a programming language.
-- 
John Switzer               | "Lobbyists are circling Clinton like slugs
                           | around a saucer of beer."
CompuServe: 74076,1250     | -- Alexander Cockburn, LA Times 11/15/92
Internet: jrs@netcom.com   | 
