


                                  THE WOMBAT EXAMINER

                             SEPTEMBER 1980  VOL. 2 NO. 2





     WELCOME  TO  THE THIRD ISSUE OF THE WOMBAT EXAMINER.  IF THE COVER DOES NOT
     MAKE ANY SENSE, YOU NEED TO INVOKE THE FOLLOWING DATATRIEVE COMMANDS:

           HELP WOMBAT

           HELP ADVANCED WOMBAT

     OUR THANKS TO THE CONTRIBUTION OF THIS ISSUE'S COVER DESIGN, LEIGH HART SMITH
     FROM ELECTRO-OPTICAL SYSTEMS, XEROX CORPORATION.  A DESCRIPTION OF THE COVER
     IS INCLUDED LATER ON IN THE NEWSLETTER.

                                   LIST OF CONTENTS

               INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS     1

               COVER STORY                       2

               STORAGE POOL EXHAUSTED            3

               DATATRIEVE ANNOUNCEMENT           8

               SITE MANAGEMENT SIG               10

               WOMBAT UPDATE                     11

               DTR FIELD TEST NOTES              14

               INTRO TO DTR (DECUS)              16

               DATATRIEVE OPTIMIZATION           18

               INTRO TO DATATRIEVE               28

               DATATRIEVE V 2.0                  39

               DIAL-A-WOMBAT                     40


                                                                          1

                            INSTRUCTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTIONS


     CONTRIBUTIONS SHOULD BE SENT TO:

           EDITOR, DATATRIEVE NEWSLETTER
           C/O DECUS, ONE IRON WAY
           MR2-3/E55
           MARLBORO, MA  17562

     Letters and articles for publication are requested from members of the SIG.
     They  may  include helpful hints, inquiries to other users, reports are SIG
     business,  summaries  of SPRs submitted to Digital or other information for
     members of the DATATRIEVE SIG.  Camera ready copy is appreciated, but almost
     anything legible will be considered.  However, this newsletter is not a forum
     for job and/or head hunting, nor is commercialism appropriate.

     NAMES OF CONTACTS

     The  following SIG members have volunteered to receive phone calls regarding
     DATATRIEVE.    Please remember that your phone call is an interruption of a
     full-time  obligation to their employer.  Prepare your questions beforehand
     and limit the call to 15-20 minutes.  Additional volunteers will be listed in
     the next issue.

     CONTACTS:

           Beth Carter (RSX-11M)                 Bob McCormick (RSTS)
           Bridgeport-Textron                    Farm Credit Banks of Springfield
           200 Precision Rd.                     P.O. Box 141
           Horsham, PA.   19044                  Springfield, MA.  01101
           215/674-2700                          413/786-7600

           Joan Hilton (RSX-11M)                 Leigh Hart Smith (VMS)
           G. D. Searle                          ms 2500
           P. O. Box 1045                        XEROX Corporation
           Skokie, IL.  60076                    300 North Halstead St.
           312/982-7485                          Pasadena, CA  91107
                                                 213/351-2351 X1820

     SIG CHAIRMAN:                               NEWSLETTER EDITOR:

           Chuck Watson (RSTS)                   Kathy Tamer (VMS, RSX-11M)
           Pacific Northwest Laboratories        G. E./MATSCO
           Batelle Northwest                     1050 Bay Area Blvd.
           Richland, WA.  99352                  Houston, TX.  77058
           509/943-1462                          713/483-5975
                                                 FTS 525-5975


                                                                        2

     COVER STORY

     The  cover  for  this  issue is taken from an article entitled:  "Wombats
     detected  in  space" for the Remote Sensing of Environment Journal (9:47-56
     (1980))  published  by Elsevier North Holland, Inc..  The abstract for this
     article reads as follows:

     "The  hairy  nosed wombat (Lasiorhinus latifrono) is a large marsupial that
     occurs  in great numbers on the Nullabor Plain, South Australia.  Because of
     the animal's burrowing and mound building, which creates areas of bare ground
     and  freshly  dug  soil,  its approximate distribution can be mapped from
     digitally  enhanced color LANDSAT imagery and even to some degree from good
     quality  band-7  black and white imagery.  The wombats also seem to destroy
     large areas of shrubland and they appear to have increased greatly in recent
     years.    Monitoring  of their spread by satellite imagery could provide a
     valuable and effective management tool."

     The  article  contains  several pictures of the hairy nosed wombat in it's
     natural environment and mentions many interesting tid-bits about the species
     in general.  Below a figure illustrating the "distribution of wombat colonies
     and the LANDSAT scene locality".  Topics covered include:  General Background
     of Study, Appearance and Behavior of Wombats, and Satellite Imagery and Field
     Study.

     We  thank Leigh for discovering this gem and sharing it with the rest of "us
     fellow  Wombats".  We will not see Leigh at the Fall DECUS, seems he will be
     sitting at home awaiting the arrival of a 'new Smith'.

     Eidtor's  Note:    I  was going to include the article but there was some
     question as to whether it was copyrighted or not.


                                                                        3

     STORAGE POOL EXHAUSTED?
                                      (REVISITED)
                                     Chuck Watson


           In  the  last issue I discussed some techniques for gaining space in
     DATATRIEVE  through the use of alternate record definitions.  Several people
     indicated  that  the  meaning of FILLER was not explained in the Version 1
     decumentation.  That is because FILLER is a well known COBOL concept, and the
     documentation authors assumed that all DATATRIEVERS understand COBOL.  Since
     this  is  most  decidedly not the case, I am reprinting the article in an
     expanded form with an example.

           Several  users  have  trouble using Repor Writer or developing large
     procedures  with  large records.  They have defined elaborate records which
     work  fine with simple keyboard commands or statements.  However, when RW or
     lengthy procedures are invoked, they encounter - STORAGE POOL EXHAUSTED.

           In addition to operational considerations such as careful selection of
     READY  mode  and  FINISHing unnecessary DOMAINS, a possible solution is to
     re-examine  the  record  description  and eliminate as many characters as
     possible, because the entire record description is in the storage pool along
     with the procedure itself.  Suggestions for condensing the record description
     include:   1) abbreviated field names such as M rather than MANUFACTURER, 2)
     elimination  of QUERY-NAME and QUERY-HEADER whenever possible, and 3) in V2,
     elimination of VALID IF [field name] IN [table name].

           In  many cases such drastic surgery is not necessary.  After all, that
     elaborate record description probably was developed to make interactive usage
     simple and elegant.  It is routine usage such as Report Writer or procedures
     which  tend to exhaust the storage pool.  Why not establish alternate record
     descriptions  for  the same record?  The new description can eliminate the
     QUERY-NAMEs because you can put the field names in the procedure.  Often the
     procedure  will not need all the fields, so they can be replaced with FILLER
     in the alternate record description.

           Establish alternate domain definitions which link the original file to
     the  new  record definition.  Add a READY [alternate domain] command in the
     procedure.    If the procedure also FINISHes the alternate domain, the user
     will not be aware that you have provided a shorter record description.

           The following example illustrates these principles.


                                                                         4

                      EXAMPLE USE OF FILLER IN RECORD DEFINITION
                                     Chuck Watson

           This  is  a  small  example of the use of FILLER in a dummy record
     definition.   I have chosen YACHTS for the example, because even though the
     number  of  fields  is  small, there are lots of optional clauses such as
     QUERY-NAME  and  EDIT-STRING  which tend to make YACHTS wasteful of space.
     First let's look at the DOMAIN and RECORD definitions for YACHTS.

     DOMAIN YACHTS
      USING YACHT ON DR0:[001,130]YACHT.DAT;

     RECORD YACHT USING
     01 BOAT.
       03 TYPE.
          06 MANUFACTURER PIC X(10)
             QUERY_NAME IS BUILDER.
          06 MODEL PIC X(10).
       03 SPECIFICATIONS
          QUERY_NAME SPECS.
          06 RIG PIC X(6)
             VALID IF RIG EQ "SLOOP","KETCH","MS","YAWL".
          06 LENGTH_OVER_ALL PIC XXX
             VALID IF LOA BETWEEN 15 AND 50
             QUERY_NAME IS LOA.
          06 DISPLACEMENT PIC 99999
             QUERY_HEADER IS "WEIGHT"
             EDIT_STRING IS ZZ,ZZ9
             QUERY_NAME IS DISP.
          06 BEAM PIC 99.
          06 PRICE PIC 99999
             MISSING VALUE IS 0
             VALID IF PRICE>DISP*1.3 OR PRICE EQ 0
             EDIT_STRING IS $$$,$$$.
     ;



                                                                        5

             Now  let's  look at my dummy DOMAIN FOOS and my dummy RECORD FOO.  Note
     that  I  have  used the work FILLER twice (I can use it as often as necessary),
     and  that the number of bytes (41) must be identical to that of the full record
     description above.

     DOMAIN FOOS
      USING FOO ON DR0:[001,130]YACHT.DAT;
     RECORD FOO
      USING
     01 B.
         03 T.
            06 MFGR                    PIC X(10).
            06 MODEL                   PIC X(10).
         03 X.
            06 FILLER                  PIC X(6).
            06 LOA                     PIC XXX.
            06 FILLER                  PIC X(7).
            06 PRICE                   PIC 99999
               EDIT-STRING IS $$$,$$$.
     ;
         At  this point, I entered DATATRIEVE and used the Version 2 feature SHOW
     SPACE to find out how much space is available for sort or report writer on my
     particular  system.    (The  table produced by SHOW SPACE is not easy to
     understand  if all you have available is Version 1.1, so I extracted a value
     which will indicate the relative saving of the dummy record.)

                     <[FREE SORT SPACE:  14144 BYTES]>

         Now I will READY the dummy domain and PRINT 5 records to show that FILLER
     items  are ignored completely.  Then I will check the space before and after
     FINISHing the domain.


                                                                         6

     DTR> READY FOOS
     DTR> PRINT FIRST 5 FOOS

        MFGR         MODEL          LOA      PRICE

     ALBERG        37 MK II         37      $36,951
     ALBIN         79               26      $17,900
     ALBIN         BALLAD           30      $27,500
     ALBIN         VEGA             27      $18,600
     AMERICAN      26               26       $9,895

               <[FREE SORT SPACE:  13166 BYTES]>
     DTR> FINISH
               <[FREE SORT SPACE:  14144 BYTES]>

              Now repeat the exercise on the YACHTS.  Note that the dummy record FOO
     saved over 500 bytes.

     DTR> READY YACHTS
     DTR> PRINT FIRST 5 YACHTS



                                   LENGTH
                                    OVER
     MANUFACTURER   MODEL   RIG     ALL     WEIGHT  BEAM    PRICE

      ALBERG      37 MK II  KETCH   37      20,000  12      $36,951
      ALBIN       79        SLOOP   26       4,200  10      $17,900
      ALBIN       BALLAD    SLOOP   30       7,276  10      $27,500
      ALBIN       VEGA      SLOOP   27       5,070  08      $18,600
      AMERICAN    26        SLOOP   26       4,000  08       $9,895

               <[FREE SORT SPACE:  12660 BYTES]>
     DTR> FINISH
               <[FREE SORT SPACE:  14144 BYTES]>

             In  this  example I have illustrated two things, the use of FILLER, and
     the concept of alternate record definitions.  Over 500 bytes of pool space were
     saved   by  using  a  temporary  record  definition  with  short  field  names,
     elimination  of  unnecessary  optional  clauses, and elimination of unnecessary
     fields  by  the  use  of FILLER.  If FILLER is a new idea, I suggest you browse
     through  a  COBOL  manual.    You  FORTRAN  programmers  should  recognize  its
     similarity  to X in a FORMAT.  The use of alternate record definitions is often
     necessary  in  complex  report  writer usages.  WARNING - Do not STORE a record
     using  the  dummy  record  definitions  and expect the filler fields to contain
     data.


                                                                        7

     DIGITAL

                                                             25 June 1980

     Ms. Kathy Tamer
     GE/MATSCO
     1050 Bay Area Blvd.
     Houston, Texas  77036

     Dear Kathy:

     Here   is   some   information  on  recent  software  product  releases.    The
     Datatrieve-11  V2.0  material includes a copy of the press release, as well as,
     some detail on the new features.

     As  new products come out, for commercial languages and data management, I will
     send  you essentially the same information we furnish to the sales force.  That
     way, we can keep the Decus members as up to date as possible.

     The  products I included with this letter were all announced to our sales force
     on June 9th.

                                                             Regards,

                                                             Mark J. Meirowitz

     /bs
     Enclosure


                     DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION, MERRIMACK, NEW HAMPSHIRE 03054
                                  (603)884-5111-TWX.710-228-0538-TELEX. 94-8457


                                                                         8

     DIGITAL EQUIPMENT CORPORATION

     To Editors Only -
     for Further Information:
     Joseph C. Nahil
     (603) 884-5101

                               DIGITAL ANNOUNCES ENHANCED

                                   DATATRIEVE SOFTWARE

     MERRIMACK,  N.  H.  -  June      ,  1980  - Digital Equipment Corporation today
     announced  an  enhanced  version  of  its  DATATRIEVE   query, report, and data
     maintenance  software.    Designed  to  work with its RMS-11 records management
     files,  the  new version is available on RSTS/E, RSX-11M, RSX-11M PLUS, and IAS
     operating  systems  for  PDP-11  computers,  and  in compatibility mode for the
     VAX-11/780 superminicomputer.

         DATATRIEVE  enables  users  to locate, sort, and update information in
     RMS-11  files and to generate reports from files.  It has been designed for
     inexperienced  users  as  well  as those who have extensive knowledge of
     computers.    The new DATATRIEVE version has been extended through variable
     length  record  support,  cross-file  "views," and a revised and expanded
     documentation  set.  The cross-file view capability enables a user to define
     logical records that are retrieved from multiple RMS-11 files.

         The  enhanced  version of the DATATRIEVE software, version 2.0, will be
     available  in  September, 1980.  It will be licensed at $4,500.00/supported
     licenses

                                         more


                               MODULES COMPUTERS SYSTEMS


                                                                         9

     Digital Equipment Corporation
     Digital Announces Enhanced
         DATATRIEVE Software
     Page Two

         According  to  John  Anderson, DATATRIEVE product manager, DATATRIEVE
     increases productivity of computer users.  "The user has a variety of ways to
     access  the  data base and the programming department is not burdened with
     requests for special purpose reports.  Inexperienced users are provided with
     the  query  tools  needed  to access data under proper security controls.
     Complex  reports  can  be produced by experienced users, while those less
     familiar with the system are able to produce simple reports.  One can locate,
     sort,  and update information as well as generate simple reports knowing as
     few as ten commands," he said.

         Improved  documentation includes a beginner's primer that explains basic
     system  features,  and  a  revised reference manual.  These documents are
     supplemented  by Guide Mode, a software prompting aid that "steps" through a
     subset of commands.  A "help" feature answers users' questions on the use and
     syntax of commands.

         "Our  documentation and aids make the data base far less mysterious and
     much more approachable to inexperienced users," anderson said.  He added that
     as  the  user's  experience and proficiency increase, more features of the
     software  can  be exploited.  "Programming professionals find DATATRIEVE a
     high-level  language  ideally suited for a host of simple applications and
     special  purpose reguests.  We consider DATATRIEVE one of the most powerful
     query languages available," he said.

         Digital  Equipment Corporation, headquartered in Maynard, Mass., is the
     world's  leading  manufacturer  of  interactive computers and a leader in
     distributed  data processing. Its products include small, medium, and large-
     scale  computer systems.  Additionally, the company manufactures a complete
     range  of  peripheral  devices  and  interfacing equipment and provides
     comprehensive  customer support services.  Digital employs more than 52,000
     persons  worldwide and has installed upwards of 220,000 eomputers.  For its
     fiscal year ended June 30, 1979, the company reported sales of $1.3 billion.


                                                                         10

     NORTHERN                     Northern Telecom           Tel(603)224-6511
     TELECOM                      Inc.                       TWX 710 361 1886
                                                             Telex 94 3453
     March 19, 1980               P.O Box 649 Airport Road
                                  Concord, New Hampshire 03301

     Ms. Kathy Tamer
     MATSCO
     1050 Bay Area Blvd.
     Houston, TX  77058

     Dear Kathy;

          I am writing you to ask that you announce in your newsletter the
     formation of a new Special Interest Group.  The Site Management SIG will
     address the problems and challenges that a small to large DEC system manager
     faces and will work to stimulate discussion on various topics of mutual
     interest to all system managers.  The SIG was formed as a result of the
     interest shown in system management related symposia sessions.  The SIG was
     just approved at the last board meeting (Feg. 22).  We intend to organize two
     sessions for the Fall '80 symposium.  A BOF session is planned for the Spring
     symposium.  Although we plan to span across all product lines and operating
     systems, concentrating on common issues, I believe that the newsletter will
     also supply hardware and software system specific articles.

          A major goal of the SIG will be to write a system managers' manual.
     Proposed manual topics are:
                -How to write a shop users guide, user training.
                -Back-up procedures and administration.
                -Media integrity protection.
                -Site installation and expansion.
                -Maintenance and repair.
                -Accounting for system management purposes.
                -System managers training.
                -Security procedures.
     Contributions and recommendations for addition of topics is needed.  This
     manual is intended to function as a framework for an installation to build
     upon.

          Newsletter will publish 4 to 6 issues a year depending upon the quantity
     and quality of contributions.  Please advise all interested parties to send
     their requests for SIG newsletter to the DECUS office.  I would also
     appreciate hearing from people directly, as the membership lists are not
     published (as you know).

          As editor of a newsletter yourself, I would appreciate a note on your
     experiences to date, and any ideas that you think would help me out.  I
     understand from Maryann Oskirko that a session for newsletter editors is
     planned at the spring symposia. I hope to meet you there.

                                                      Sincerely,


                                                      Bob Rock
     RR:vlt


                                                                        11

     This letter was sent to the volunteers who stepped forward at the DECUS
     symposium.  Its not too late, if you care to help, contact Chuck Watson.


                                     WOMBAT UPDATE
                           DATATRIEVE SPECIAL INTEREST GROUP
                                CHUCK WATSON, CHAIRMAN

                                    April 28, 1980

          Dear Volunteer:

          Thank you for volunteering to help with SIG activities.  Your
     participation at the Chicago DECUS symposium helped make it a successful
     meeting.  I find that fostering communication between users and beginners,
     and between users and DEC personnel, is the most rewarding aspect of my
     position as SIG chairman.  You can help to make the San Diego meeting useful
     to your fellow DATATRIEVERS, and you can have an impact on DEC, by following
     through on the commitment you made by attend the steering committee meeting
     Wednesday morning.

          We need help in four areas, newsletter, question and answer resource
     people, tutorial facilitators, and speakers.  We would like to have written
     confirmation of your commitment as soon as possible.  However, as I said in
     Chicago, we want you to be sure that you have the support of your management
     before you get involved in a time consuming project.

          NEWSLETTER - If you would like to help edit the WOMBAT EXAMINER, write
     to:

                Kathy Tamer
                Johnson Space Center
                SE 2/MATSCO
                Houston, Texas  77058
                (713) 483-5975
                FTS 525-5975

     Tell her which operating system you use, and she will send you articles which
     contain DATATRIEVE usages which need to be confirmed.  She may also be
     calling on you for editorial help, development of answers to questions, etc.


                                                                         12

          NEWSLETTER ARTICLES - We need more input to the newsletter.  Readers are
     interested in your progress in understanding DATATRIEVE.  The more authors we
     have the more chances that we will cover an item which will be exactly the
     trick someone needs.  For example, I didn't write an article about the use of
     FILLER because I thought it was self evident.  I couldn't believe the
     reaction to Anne Duncan's optimization talk when the audience did not
     understand FILLER.  Perhaps you know of a DTR usage which is self evident,
     common place, and simple in your operation.  Write it up, because someone out
     there will find it a revelation.  Send newsletter articles to Kathy Tamer.

          QUESTION AND ANSWER RESOURCE PEOPLE - We need volunteers to answer phone
     questions about DATATRIEVE.  I know that many of you signed up for this
     acitivty, but I don't want to publish your phone number if you were on a
     DECUS high at the time.  If you are still willing to share your experiences
     with other users, write a short letter to be published in the WOMBAT
     EXAMINER.  Include your name, address, and phone (FTS if government),
     operating system, and a brief description of the types of application you
     feel confident to discuss.

          TUTORIAL - We are planning to present a tutorial on the Sunday preceding
     the San Diego symposium.  We need help in designing the course content, and
     we need facilitators to lead a problem-solving team of about 6 students.  If
     you are interested, contact the tutorial coordinator:

                Dave Nordby
                G. D. Searle
                PO Box 5110
                Chicago, Illinois  60680
                (512) 982 4631

     This could really require a lot of your time, and a commitment to attend the
     San Diego meeting a day early.  We hope to recover enough money to be able to
     pay for the extra night's lodgings and food for the facilitators, but don't
     count on it.  If you are still enthused about this idea, I am sure that Dave
     can use your help.


                                                                         13

          SPEAKERS - We would like to have a balance between DEC and user
     presentations at the San Diego symposium.  We expect that in addition to the
     long awaited "Official Announcement of Version 2", anne Duncan will present
     two talks, "Introduction to DATATRIEVE", and "DATATRIEVE Optimization
     Techniques".  We also hope that Jim Starkey will present a paper on
     DATATRIEVE internals.  We have decided that there ought to be user papers as
     well, but we also think that papers by the same old crew are not in the best
     interest of the SIG.  In the past, Chuck Watson has been responsible for 3
     papers, and Jim McIlvaine, Bob McCormack, and Dave Nordby have provided (in
     one way or another) one each.  We need you as a speaker in San Diego.  Tell
     us how you are using DATATRIEVE.  Answer the Call for Participation with a
     mini paper.  Write the mini paper now!  Have it ready and polished before the
     Call for Participation arrives.

          Acceptance of a mini paper obligates you to an oral presentation.  You
     do not need to prepare a formal paper unless you want to see your application
     in the Proceedings.  You may want to prepare an informal paper for inclusion
     in the WOMBAT EXAMINER.  You may not even want to stand up and talk but may
     be more comfortable giving a poster paper.  But, do participate.

          ROOMS - Since you indicated an interest in the Steering Committee, I
     assume that you are planning to attend the San Diego symposium.  Room space
     at the Town and Country is limited.  It helps to send in your room
     reservation card the day it arrives.  Don't wait for approval from your
     management!  You can always cancel a room, but late registrants are assigned
     to other hotels as much as 2 miles away.

          Again,  I want to thank you for your interest in the SIG.  Please
     consider carefully the needs outlined above, and send us your written
     response soon.

                                                      Chuck Watson
                                                      Battelle Northwest
                                                      Box 999
                                                      Richland, Washington 99352
                                                      (509) 943 1462


                                                                         14

                           DATATRIEVE FIELD TEST PANEL NOTES

          Four field test sites presented their impressions of Datatrieve 2.0 and
     answered questions from the group.  All four seemed to be very favorably
     impressed.  Although some felt it was not for the casual user - that some
     training was necessary.  The new features, especially the VIEW allowing
     access of more than one file at a time, were considered a great improvement.

          One problem that has been improved in Version 2.0 (but was still a
     complaint) was the limit on the collection size.

          During the question and answer session a number of people questioned
     slow response time.  The panel suggested reviewing and fine-tuning the
     overall system and the specific files as well.  However, they did admit that
     response time would drop off as the number of users increased.

          What were the problem areas in converting to Version 2.0?  Not many -
     the panel said - mostly with passwords and the fact that the report writer no
     longer starts in column 1.

          The panel members were very helpful and enthusiastic.  I am looking
     forward to the new release.  Datatrieve is a very good product for the
     general purpose user as well as a debug tool for the programmer.


     A.H.
     5/7/80

                                                      Great Northern Paper Company
                                                      CIS Department
                                                      Millinocket, ME  04462

     Test Panel Members:

     Dave Nordby, GD Searle, Chicago, IL

     Don Golden, Litton Resources, Houston, TX

     Bob McCormick

     Chuck Watson, Batelle Northwest Laboratories, Richland, WA


                                                                             15 

          Three different sites were used as Field Test Sites for Datatrieve 2.0.
     They all presented their impressions.  One site had two PDP 11/40's that
     contained files accessed, modified and added to by Datatrieve 2.0 only.  They
     were using Datatrieve for a quick way to offload their files from their
     Corporate Computer Center.  This site was very enthusiastic, however, they
     did admit there were some problems in using Datatrieve as their only
     "language," some of they were:

          Collection size limit
          hard to use
          doesn't handle certain data types well
          no statistical or graphics interface
          limited data entry facilities


          Version 2.0 of Datatrieve has many new features.  There is a VIEW which
     allows the user to access multiple files at once.  The examples they used
     included four files at once - one of them containing 255,000 records.  ADT is
     a tutorial mode which helps a user define a new file.  The collection size
     maximum will be much larger although no one could say how much.  There is a
     limited EDIT feature which I had the chance to try out on the VAX System (VAX
     11/780) while I was there.  It allows you to edit a record or procedure
     without having to leave Datatrieve.  It is not very sophisticated - some of
     the field test sites liked it - some didn't.  There is a table feature in
     Version 2.0 that can be used for verification and/or printing.  As I
     mentioned earlier, we will be able to access only a portion of a key field
     and the retrieval will be indexed (therefore much faster).  There is a
     special DATE field that will show elapsed days and edit number of days in a
     month.  The documentation is reported to be greatly improved and expanded.
     It is nearly 400 pages long.

          According to the DEC representative the major conversion effort is in
     password handling.  The Field Test Sites felt it was not a large effort.

          I was very impressed with Datatrieve 2.0 and feel it would be well worth
     the conversion to get the new features.


                                                                         16

                              INTRODUCTION TO DATATRIEVE

                             As presented at DECUS 4/22/80

     Ms. Anne Duncan of digital Equipment Corporation, the product manager for
     Datatrieve, presented a basic tutorial on the functions of Datatrieve.  some
     mention of Version 2 capabilities was made, but the primary emphasis was on
     currently available functionality.

     Datatrieve is an interactive, end-user-oriented product for online data
     retrieval, update and report generation.  The commands and error messages are
     simple and English-like.  Online help is available if needed, and command
     responses are automatically validated and prompted for.

     The product is completely self-contained and supports the following
     functions:

          1.  Data retrieval
          2.  Computational capabilities
          3.  Statistical functions - max, min, total, average
          4.  Sort
          5.  Report writer
          6.  Update capabilities

     The retrieval can be based on data fields in one or multiple (Version II
     only) files.  Any field, whether a key or not, can be the argument for a
     search.  Combinations of fields, or character-string subsets of fields, can
     be the basis for retrieval.  The product automatically optimizes the search
     strategy for maximum efficiency.

     Print options for the retrieved records are:

          All fields (default)
          Selected fields
          Arithmetic computations performed on
                retrieved fields
          Statistical functions of fields
          'Print' may be on terminal, line
                printer or a data file

     The report generation feature allows more sophisticated output formatting:

          Multiple control breaks
          Page & control break headers & trailers
          Automatic page numbering & date headings


                                                                      17

     Update capabilities provide for changing fields within existing records,
     adding records, or deleting records.  Some validation & editing is provided
     for the entered data.

     Datatrieve can operate on RMS files created via the following languages:

          COBOL
          BASIC PLUS-2
          DIBOL
          RPG II
          FORTRAN 4-PLUS

     Hardware requirements for Datatrieve are 64 K Bytes of memory, 1200 blocks on
     disk, and an extended istruction set.  Datatrieve operates under the
     following operating systems:

          VAX/VMS  (Compatibility mode)
          TRAX
          RSTS/E
          IAS
          RSX-11M & M-PLUS


                                                      Notes taken by:

                                                      Mary Beth Shafer
                                                      Internationan Harvester
                                                      1919 S. Highland
                                                      Lombard, IL  60148


                                                                         18

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.                               ANNE DUNCAN

                                       DATATRIEVE-11 OPTIMIZATION

     1.   Overview of V2.0 features

          a.    VIEWS command

                *artificial view of one or more primitive domains

                *may be hierarchial

                *may be subset fields

                *may be subset records

                *eliminate V1.1 multiple "FOR" hacks

          b.    TABLES

                *dictionary object

                *can be edited

                *reference automatically loads table

                *use for input validation

                *use for printing strings from codes

          c.    DATE datatype

                *usage is date

                *uses VAX/VMS date format
                      -four words
                      -word boundary aligned

                *any form input

                *flexible print format

                *operations
                      -comparison
                      -elapsed days (subtract date)
                      -sort

                *knows "TODAY"

          d.    Variables

                *DECLARE statement


                                                                         19

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.                               ANNE DUNCAN

                *Global or local variables
                      -Global until RELEASE or end of DTR session

                *any datatype

          e.    "COMPUTED BY" fields

                *"COMPUTED BY" clause on field definition

                *computed on reference (no file space)

                *considered an elementary field

                *access like any other field

                *may be specified for variables

          f.    ADT

                *define domain and record definition without knowing picture rules

          g.    COBOL OCCURS

                *OCCURS fixed number or

                *OCCURS depending on...

          h.    Data is verified during input, prompts in the event of truncation

          i.    11 concatenation in PRINT statement - strips all spaces to the
                left.

          j.    EXTRACT - data from dictionary onto RMS file

          k.    SHOW fields

          l.    DEFINE DICTIONARY file - spec

          m.    Changed Report Writer

                *Smarter

                *Centers two fields

          n.    Changed CONTROL access mechanism

          o.    T format - scrolling format - recognizes spaces and tabs and
                splits line of field

          p.    - format (Social Security Number)

          q.    Scaling to float

          r.    TOTAL not limited to 16 TOTALS

          s.    New documentation


                                                                         20

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.                               ANNE DUNCAN

     2.   Optimization of DATATRIEVE pool

          a.    Pool is:

                *part of DATATRIEVE task (max size is 32KW)

                *not space on disk

                *internal work space

                *can't be extended when task is at maximum size

                *used for RMS buffers, DTR internal blocks, DTR SORT

                *V2 pool
                      -increased for:  VAX/VMS  V2.0 - alot
                                       RSTS/E   V7.0

                      -decreased for:  RSX-11M  V3.2
                                       IAS
                                       RSX-11M+ V1.0

                      however, before it was used inefficiently in many cases,
     so..

          b.    Layout - DTR Task


                      |------------------------------| \
                      |          DTR code            |  |
                      |------------------------------|  |
                      |          RMS pool            |  |
                      |------------------------------|  |
                      |                              |  |
                      |          SORT pool           |    >  Central Storage Pool
                      |                              |  |
                      |------------------------------|  |
                      |                              |  |
                      |      Small block pool        |  |  ---=>dynamically moving
                      |                              |  |       boundary
                      |------------------------------| /
          c.    Example - Look at Pool Chunks

                DTR> READY YACHTS

                      |------------------------------|
                      |        YACHT buffers         |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |                              |
                      |          SORT pool           |
                      |                              |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |                              |
                      |        YACHTS blocks         |  --> for every field, edit
                      |                              |      string,constant
                      |------------------------------|


                                                                          21


     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.          ANNE DUNCAN

          DTR> READY YACHTS
          DTR> READY OWNERS



                      |------------------------------|
                      |          YACHT buffers       |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |         OWNERS buffers       |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |                              |
                      |           SORT pool          |
                      |                              |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |         OWNERS blocks        |
                      |------------------------------|
                      |          YACHTS blocks       |
                      |------------------------------|

          DTR> READY YACHTS
          DTR> READY OWNERS
          DTR> READY YACHTS

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               |  ----> not returned to
                      |-------------------------------|    ^   SORT pool because
                      |          OWNERS buffers       |    |   OWNERS is still in
                      |-------------------------------|    |   the way
                      |                               |    |
                      |            SORT pool          |    |    called fragment -
                      |                               |    |    not necessarily
                      |                               |    |    useless, depends
                      |-------------------------------|    |    on size
                      |          OWNERS buffers       |    |
                      |-------------------------------|    |
                      |                               | ---/
                      |-------------------------------|



                                                                         22

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.          ANNE DUNCAN

          DTR> READY YACHTS
          DTR> READY OWNERS
          DTR> FINISH YACHTS
          DTR> DECLARE some variables
          DTR> PRINT USING a table
          DTR> READY FAMILIES
          DTR> FIND FAMILIES

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               | --->fragment
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          OWNERS buffer        |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               | --->fragment
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |         FAMILIES buffer       |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |            SORT pool          |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |      FAMILIES Collection      |
                      |             blocks            |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |        FAMILIES blocks        |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               | --->fragment
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |           TABLE blocks        |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          OWNERS blocks        |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               | --->fragment
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |        VARIABLE blocks        |
                      |-------------------------------|

          DTR> PRINT USING FAMILIES TABLE

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               |  SAME AS ABOVE
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |            SORT pool          |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          FAMILIES table       |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               |  SAME AS ABOVE
                      |-------------------------------|


                                                                        23

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.          ANNE DUNCAN

          DTR> FINISH (everything)

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |           RMS pool            |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          SORT pool            |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |        FAMILIES table         |
                      |             blocks            |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          TABLE blocks         |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |                               |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |       VARIABLE blocks         |
                      |-------------------------------|

          DTR> RELEASE ALL TABLES,COLLECTIONS AND VARIABLES
                (not proper syntax)

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |           RMS pool            |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          SORT pool            |
                      |                               |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |       Small block pool        |
                      |-------------------------------|

     NOW:
          DTR> READY FAMILIES

                      |-------------------------------|
                      |      FAMILIES buffer          |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |          SORT pool            |
                      |                               |
                      |-------------------------------|
                      |        FAMILIES blocks        |
                      |-------------------------------|

                .:Consider your usage and order of usage


                                                                        24


     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.          ANNE DUNCAN

          d.    New command:  SHOW SPACE
                      Shows memory space allocation (in Bytes)

                           Alloc.      Used           Free       # of Fragments

     RMS Pool              4132.       3668.            464.            3
     Small block pool       256.        250.              0.            0
     Sort pool            16384.          0.          16384.            0
                          ------       -----          ------           ---
          TOTAL           20774.       3924.          16848.            0

          e.    Optimization of DTR pool

                *reduce file bucket size
                      .:more disc accesses

                *reduce number of open files

                *consider the order that files are opened

                *reduce clauses within record description:
                      - group fields
                      - EDIT-STRING
                      - QUERY-NAME
                      - QUERY-HEADERS

                *reduce size of name strings

                *eliminate unnecessary fields (group items, filler)

                *release collections, tables and variables

     3.   Retrieval Algorithm

          a.    Comparisons are done numerically (by subtraction) if either side
                of relational expression is a number

          b.    String comparisons - short string padded with spaces
                (.:use 2 = size strings)

          c.    For index retrieval, the search value is moved into the search
                field to ensure data type match (more data types in DTR than
                RMS-11)

     4.   Retrieval Algorithm for Index Files

          a.    A field is considered an index key in V2 if its offset matches
                the offset of the key in the file definition and its length is
                less than or equal to the length of the key in the field
                definition


                                                                        25


     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.          ANNE DUNCAN

          b.    A relational expression is index-retrievable when the field is an
                index key and:

                *operation is EQ or

                *operation is GT. GE. or BETWEEN and the datatype of the field
                matches the RMS datatype

                *the field is alphanumeric ad operator is EQ, GT, GE or BETWEEN

          |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
          |     RMS key types:   Packed decimal                             |
          |                      one and two word binary keys               |
          |                      one and two word decimal keys              |
          |                      string                                     |
          |-----------------------------------------------------------------|

          c.    An AND of 2 Booleans is index retrievable if either branch is
                index-retrievable

          d.    An OR of 2 Booleans is index-retrievable if both branches are
                index-retrievable

          e.    A NOT of a Boolean is never index-retrievable
                (bot, NOT LT = GE)

     5.   Arithmetic Retrieval Algorithm

          a.    To add or subtract 2 numbers:

                `if either is COMP-1 or COMP-2 (more efficient, eliminates
                conversion, but takes space), convert both to double precision
                floating and add numbers (finished)

                `otherwise, it must convert both numbers to binary

                `if number of decimal digits to right of decimal points differ,
                multiply the number with the few digits by approximating the power
                of ten

                `add or subtract the numbers

          b.    Multiplication:

                `if either number is floating, convert both to double precision
                float and mutiplex them

                `other, convert both values to binary, multiply them.  Scale
                factor is sum of two input scale factors


                                                                         26

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.                               ANNE DUNCAN

          c.    Division:

                *scale up numerator if necessary to provide accuracy of result
                (either scale of field to which being assigned or scale of the
                picture)

                *if either is floating point ... it's obvious

                *if division is zero, quit

                *if numerator is zero, return zero

                *divide numerator by denominator

                *compute the scale factor as the difference between the scale
                factor of the numerator and scale factor of denominator

     6.   Hints

          a.    Procedures are treated as if input from terminal - will not use
                more or less pool

          b.    Keep file bucket size down (1 or 2) - saves pool

          c.    Use RSE when you need performance
                      -FIND,SORT,PRINT slower than RSE

                      BUT

                      -PRINT RSE uses more dynamic pool (usually)

                Choice:  RUN fast or RUN!

          d.    TABLES rather than large IF-THEN-ELSE

                statements or BEGIN-END blocks - saves pool

          e.    Control loading of table
                      -reduce fragmentation
                      -eliminate "out-of-pool" in report writer
                       (RW takes everything it can get)
                      -using dummy reference to table

                DTR> BEGIN
                DTR> DECLARE FOO PIC X(20).
                DTR> FOO=5 VIA RIG-TABLE              dummy reference to table,
                DTR> END                              loads table into pool

                DTR> SHOW TABLES:

                      TABLES LOADED:

                                 RIG-TABLE
                TABLES:

                                 RIG-TABLE


                                                                         27

     THURSDAY 8:00 P.M.                               ANNE DUNCAN

          f.    Use COMP data type for authorized operations (incl. data) faster

          g.    Use minimum record definitions

                "put edit-strings and query-headers on print statements

                "use abbreviated name for field name instead of query name
                      instead of:

                      06 DISPLACEMENT       PIC 9(5)
                           QUERY-HEADER is "WEIGHT"
                           EDIT-STRING IS ZZ,ZZ9
                           QUERY-NAME is DISP.

                use:

                      06 DISP          PIC 9(5).

                           and PRINT DISP<--("WEIGHT") using ZZ,ZZ9.

                But:  if first exhausts pool, so will second!


                                                                         28

                              INTRODUCTION TO DATATRIEVE



                                      Anne Duncan


                             Digital Equipment Corporation




                                  WHAT IS DATATRIEVE?




                      DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                      ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES, UPDATES,

                      AND REPORT GENERATION.


                                                                         29

                               DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE



                                        OLD WAY



          1.    EDIT PROGRAM

          2.    COMPILE PROGRAM

          3.    (GO TO 1)

          4.    LINK PROGRAM

          5.    (GO TO 1)

          6.    RUN PROGRAM

          7.    (GO TO 1)

          8.    DONE!  I GOT MY ANSWER!!


     (BUT THAT'S NOT EXACTLY WHAT I MEANT...)



                               DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE


                                        NEW WAY


          1.    TYPE REQUEST INTO DATATRIEVE

          2.    GET DATA

          3.    (CHANGE YOUR MIND AND GO TO 1)

          4.    GO HOME EARLY


                                                                         30

                              DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE,

                                   END USER ORIENTED


     AN END USER IS:

          1.    AN INVENTORY CLERK

          2.    A SECRETARY

          3.    A PROGRAMMER

          4.    YOU

          5.    EVEN YOUR MANAGER!

                              DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE,

                                   END USER ORIENTED


     o    DATATRIEVE COMMANDS ARE SIMPLE AND ENGLISH LIKE.

     o    DATATRIEVE FORGIVES COMMON MISTAKES WHERE MEANING IS CLEAR.

     o    DATATRIEVE MESSAGES ARE IN ENGLISH, NOT COMPUTER-ESE.

     o    DATATRIEVE HAS HELP ON-LINE IF NEEDED.

     o    DATATRIEVE HAS A TAKE-YOU-BY-THE-HAND TUTORIAL BUILT IN.

     o    DATATRIEVE HAS A TAKE-YOU-BY-THE-HAND APPLICATION DESIGN TOOL BUILT-IN.

     o    DATATRIEVE HAS BUILT-IN DATA VALIDATION AND PROMPTING.


                                                                         31

                              DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE,

                                   END USER ORIENTED


     ENGLISH:

          FIND ALL EMPLOYEES WITH SALARY GREATER THAN

                $15,000 AND JOB EQUAL TO PROGRAMMER


     DATATRIEVE:

          DTR > FIND ALL EMPLOYEES WITH SALARY GREATER-THAN

                "$15,000" AND JOB EQUAL "PROGRAMMER"


                               DATATRIEVE IS INTERACTIVE

                                   END USER ORIENTED




     ENTER DATE-IN:  FEB 31, 1980


     Conversion error from date string "FEB 31, 1980"

     Re-enter DATE-IN:


                                                                         32

                             DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE,

                               END USER ORIENTED PACKAGE


                       DATATRIEVE IS COMPLETELY SELF-CONTAINED.



     WITHOUT LEAVING DATATRIEVE YOU CAN:

          1.    QUERY FILES.

          2.    PREPARE REPORTS.

          3.    UPDATE WORNOUT, TIRED DATA.

          4.    CREATE FILES.

          5.    CREATE, EDIT, AND DELETE PROCEDURES.

          6.    DEFINE NEW APPLICATIONS


                             DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE,

                               END USER ORIENTED PACKAGE



     DATATRIEVE CONTAINS:

          o     RETRIEVAL FUNCTIONS

          o           o    STATISTICAL FUNCTIONS (MAX, MIN, TOTAL,

                AVERAGE)

          o     SORT

          o     REPORT WRITER

          o     FULL UPDATE CAPABILITIES

 
                                                                          33

                        DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                           ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES



     RETRIEVALS CAN BE BASED ON:

          o     ONE FILE'S DATA

          o     MULTIPLE FILES' DATA (A VIEW)


                             DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE,


                               END USER ORIENTED PACKAGE



     DATATRIEVE ENHANCES DATA SECURITY AND PRIVACY.  AS A SYSTEM IT:

                      o    LIMITS WHAT A USER CAN SEE

                      o    CONTROLS WHAT A USER CAN DO IF HE CAN SEE IT


                                                                        34

                        DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                           ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES

     SELECTED RETRIEVALS CAN BE BASED ON:

          o     ANY FIELD IN RECORD (INDEXED OR NOT)

          o     ANY COMBINATION OF FIELDS (AND/OR)

          o     EQUAL, GREATER THAN, LESS THAN, NOT EQUAL

          o     CONTAINING A CHARACTER STRING


     DATATRIEVE AUTOMATICALLY OPTIMIZES RETRIEVAL STRATEGY


                        DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                           ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES


     DATATRIEVE CAN PRINT:

          o     ALL THE DATA FIELDS (NORMAL CASE)

          o     SOME OF THE FIELDS

          o     ARITHMETIC COMPUTATIONS

          o     FANCY LAYOUTS WITHOUT FANCY COMMANDS

          o     MAX, MIN, AVERAGE, AND TOTAL OF EXPRESSIONS

          o     ON THE TERMINAL

          o     ON THE LINE PRINTER


                                                                          35

                        DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                    ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES, AND UPDATES



     DATATRIEVE CAN:

          o     CHANGE A FIELD IN A RECORD

          o     CHANGE A BUNCH OF FIELDS IN A RECORD

          o     CHANGE A BUNCH OF RECORDS

          o     STORE FRESH, NEW RECORDS

          o     ERASE OLD, MOLDY RECORDS


                        DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER

                    ORIENTED PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES, AND UPDATES


     DATATRIEVE CAN VERIFY DATA AND REPROMPT IF:

          o     DATA IS TOO LONG (TRUNCATION)

          o     DATA IS INVALID


                                                                         36

                    DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER ORIENTED

                PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES, UPDATES AND REPORT GENERATION


     REPORTS USED TO BE EASY TO UNDERSTAND, BUT HARD TO DESCRIBE.

     NOW REPORTS ARE EASY TO DESCRIBE, TOO.

                    DATATRIEVE IS AN INTERACTIVE, END USER ORIENTED

                PACKAGE FOR DATA QUERIES, UPDATES AND REPORT GENERATION


          DATATRIEVE HAS (FOR THE TECHNICIAN):

                1.    REPORT NAME, COLUMN HEADERS, PAGE NUMBERING, DATING.

                2.    MULTIPLE PRIORITY CONTROL BREAKS.

                3.    AUTOMATIC REPORT FORMATTING.

                4.    AUTOMATIC TOTALING.

                5.    CONTROL BREAK TOTALS.

                6.    REPORT, PAGE, AND CONTROL GROUP HEADERS AND TRAILERS.

                7.    PAGE TOTALS.

                8.    REPORT TOTALS.


                                                                        37

                        DATATRIEVE CAN READ FILES CREATED FROM:

                           o     COBOL (ALL VERSIONS)

                           o     BASIC + 2

                           o     DIBOL

                           o     RPG II

                           o     FORTRAN IV+


                  WHAT ARE THE HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR DATATRIEVE?



     DATATRIEVE REQUIRES:

          o     MINIMUM OF 64K BYTES OF USER MEMORY

          o     EXTENDED INSTRUCTION SET (YOU HAVE IT)

          o     1200 BLOCKS OF DISK SPACE

          o     (FLOATING POINT PROCESSOR SPEEDS UP FLOATING COMPUTATIONS)


                                                                        38

                  WHAT ARE THE SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS FOR DATATRIEVE?



                      o    VAX/VMS

                      o    TRAX (FOR FREE!)

                      o    RSTS/E

                      o    IAS

                      o    RSX-11M

                      o    RSX-11M PLUS

                                 ONE DATATRIEVE FOR ALL!


     THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE.

                                       WHAT ARE THE PROBLEMS?

          o     DATATRIEVE TASK IMAGE IS BIG -- CAN BOG DOWN SMALL SYSTEMS.

          o     LARGE BUCKET SIZES EXHAUST INTERNAL SPACE.

          o     NOT FOR BIG APPLICATIONS.

          o     NO MORE EXCUSES.


                                                                         39

                              LATEST NEWS ABOUT VERSION 2
                                       INCLUDING
                                      A MAJOR BUG


                                     Chuck Watson
                                  Battelle Northwest
                                    Battelle Blvd.
                              Richland, Washington  99352
                                    (509) 376 2227
                                    (FTS) 444 2227


          Version 2 of DATATRIEVE should be in your hands by now.  As I write this
     in late September, the product kits have been in the hands of your local
     software support specialist for a week or more.  The new documentation has
     been published, and looks great.  If you are having problems convincing your
     software sales person that Version 2 exists, try ordering the documentation.
     The DATATRIEVE PRIMER is designed for the novice user of either V1.1 OR V2.
     It assumes no prior computer experience.  Physically, it resembles a
     stenographer's pad, including the easel.  The DEC order number is
                                      AA-C742B-TC


     BGG REPORT

          There are 7 known patches to the new version.  They are published in the
     October and Novermber SOFTWARE DISPATCH.  Six of these are minor, but one,
     #5, is especially important.

          "WHEN AN ALTERNATE KEYED FIELD IS PART OF THE RECORD SELECTION CRITERIA
     FOR A MODIFY:  RECORDS NOT ASSOCIATED WITH THE RECORD SELECTION CRITERIA
     MIGHT BE CHANGED, IN OTHER CASES, RECORDS THAT MATCH THE RECORD SELECTION
     CRITERIA ARE NOT MODIFIED."  (and sometimes it even works properly!)

          Obviously, running version 2 without the patch can get you into a lot of
     trouble with multi-key files.  The patch is in the Noverber Dispatch.


                                                                         40


                        Dial-a-Wombat leaves police 'up a tree'

          First there was Dial-a-Prayer, then Dial-a-Recipe, and even
     Dial-a-Footballer.  But the south-east Victorian town of Sale has produced
     one to top them all.  Dial-a-Wombat.

          It all began early yesterday when Sale police received a telephone call:
     "You won't believe this, and I'm not drunk, but there's a wombat in the phone
     booth outside the town hall" the caller said.

          Not firmly convinced about the caller's claim to sobriety, members of
     the constabulary drove to the scene, expecting to pick up a drunk.  But there
     it was, an annoyed wombat, trapped ina telephone booth.  The wombat,
     determined not to be had the better of again, threw its bulk into the fray.
     It was eventually lassoed and released in a nearby scrub.

          Then the officers received another message ... another wombat in another
     booth.  There it was: Another angry wombat trapped in a telephone booth.  The
     constables took the miffed marsupial into temporary costody and released it,
     too, in the scrub.

          But on their way back to the station they happened to pass another
     telephone booth and -- you guessed it -- another imprisoned wombat.

          After some serious detective work, the lads in blue found a suspect, and
     after questioning, released him to be charged on summons.  Their problem ...
     they cannot find a law against placing wombats in telephone booths.


          THIS ARTICLE IS OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO THOSE USING DATATRIEVE VIA
     DIAL-UP CONNECTIONS.  ARTICLE APPEARED ON PAGE 1 OF THE NEWCASTLE MORNING
     HERALD (WSW AUSTRALIA), 27 AUGUST 1980.





