Does anyone know what happened to Kedwell Software's DataBoss and WordTech's Arago? These development programs allowed you to compile your dbms program so that it stood alone and didn't need the development program (dBase, etc) to be installed on the user's PC.

Arago got bought out by Borland in 1992, then left to die. Are they still around, maybe under different names?


tkscribe

Kedwell Software went defunct in the summer of 1994. Its assets were purchased in early 1995 by a company called Applied Cellular Technology (ACT), based in Springfield, MO.

ACT formed a subsidiary called TechTools, based out of Nashua, NH and transferred the DataBoss assets to that company. They later purchased Baler Software, and folded Baler and Visual Baler into the TechTools product offerings.

TechTools went out of business in 1996. ACT either sold or gave the DataBoss rights to a user group in the Chicago area. I can't seem to locate the site anymore.

I no longer remember the exact details of the database format, but it was fairly straight-forward.

It's a fixed-record size file -- so each row in a "table" takes up the same size. The first record contains some of the meta data, including the first free storage block as well as a record count. Additional meta-data is stored in a couple of different files. Those store information such as the field name, display position, required status, size, and the input mask.

Deleted records are simply marked as such. The free records are maintained as a linked list, bootstrapped by the info in the header. A free record points to the next free record. In this context "points" means it stores the index number of the fixed-length record.

The program was originally written in Pascal. Strings are stored in Pascal format, meaning prefixed with their length and without a trailing 0-byte. (It's not necessary since the string length is known in advance.) As the C version of the program is compatible with the Pascal one, it uses the Pascal format to store the data.

Memo fields -- large text fields -- are treated differently.

If I remember correctly (it's been 13-15 years), memo fields are stored in the main database file, broken up in to the chunks with the same length as the other rows. They are also stored in a linked-list like format. The primary record contains a pointer to the record that starts the memo chain.

With this info, it shouldn't be too difficult to extract the data using a custom-written program. The only real trick is that you need to skip deleted records, and be aware of the memo fields may be interleaved with the other rows.

I hope this helps. I realize your post is coming up on two years old, but perhaps this will help someone else trying to extract this data.

The Windows version of DataBoss used a different format for its data. I think it used a dBase IV format.

Thanks for the great info Eric. It's too bad that this software was allowed to die. I still have all the manuals and disks, but I haven't used these programs for quite a while. Most likely they can't be used to develop anything that will work with any of the newer versions of Windows.

The great thing about this software was that the compiler allowed you to develop stand-alone programs that didn't require a run-time module.

Unfortunately, too much really good software was purchased by larger companies and left to die. I guess that was how they eliminated competition. Seems like something straight out of Microsoft's playbook.

It is probably too late, but this information could help somebody else : Arago (by Wordtech) is surviving under windows in Japan : Arago pro for windows and Arago for internet. You'll find it on Southern Pacific Computer Inc. home page .
It is very difficult to deal with Soupacific, and I can't read japanese. After all, I obtained an interesting 'draft english version' some years ago. I have not found a compiler for this version at this time, but today it could exist... If anybody is interested, send me a mail to contact(nospam)-@evol-it.com. In our company we chose CA-VO for our commercial applications. But sometimes I have a look to arago. I'm sure it is a pleasant product. If a better documentation has released (and a compiler too), I think I will try to write a little project with Arago. I hope my post will help...

At least they did not take the acronym AYDS.

Hello,
google

I started with dBASE II in 1982 and have worked my way through dBASE III, FoxPro, dBXL and am now using ARAGO, Ver.6.5 on two computers--one with WinXP the other with Vista. Both work fine and are fast even without compiling.
Southern Pacific, Inc. is still around and, in fact, I have just ordered an upgrade from Ver. 6.5 to Ver 6.7. Their Web page is Southern Pacific Computer Inc. home page Unfortunately it is in Japanese and, while it show an English link it only says "Sorry, not completed." (in Japanese) or you will get an Internal Server Error. (FYI, I have lived in Japan 45 of the past 55 years and I do read, write and speak Japanese rather fluently.) The Sales Office is jsales@soupacific.com and they appear to be able to handle rather simple English messages.
However, while the documentation is in Japanese, all of the commands are in English and if one knows (or even has a manual for) dBASE III, FoxPro or dBXL one can use the Japanese version without too much difficulty.
In closing, I'm willing to try to help anyone who might be interested in ARAGO.
Jim White jimw@gol.com

Thank you for your contribution Jim,

I received some answer from Hiroshi Katayama -Soupacific inc.- in May :
"Currently we do have followings;
ARAGO Professional for Windows Compiler
ARAGO dBXL for Windows Interpreter
Above products we are now shipping Japanese version and UTF-8 version!
Also ARAGO for Internet
On windows, Linux and FreeBSD, this products works as CGI interperter!
Above products we are now shipping Japanese version and UTF-8 version!
UTF-8 version needs some more work for Panel Painter part. But ARAGO for
Internet does nt have such a thing. "
I had no free time enought to write a line of Arago code since this email. We still need an arago compiler (and for internet too), but we would like download an evaluation version before to buy it. The cost seemed rather expensive to me (if my memory's still good... ).
If anybody has a best idea ...
Patrick GERARD (contact@evol-it.com)

In reply to Patrick Gerard (and othrs). Yes, Arago is expensive--particularly at today's Yen rate. Arago for Internet UTF-8 is 99,800 Yen. However, upgrades from Ver. 6 vary from 7,000 to 29,800 Yen while from older versions the prices are from 35,800 to 69,800 Yen. (These are at price list Jim White

A friend of mine told me about this forum. I was resurrecting my DOS machine and after restoring all the directories and files I noticed that my Arago.exe was zero bytes. I have been searching for anywhere that would have or be able to replace that one file. I created some great apps with QS/DBXL/Arago and still like to keep coding just for myself. While I missed out on DBII, I did do some extensive work in DBIII, Fox, Foxplus, Foxplus Pro, DBFast, Force, Clipper, and Alpha, but my favorite was the Arago DBXL/QS because you could test in DBXL and then compile in Quicksilver with no changes. You could not do that in anything else.

So please if someone could direct me to where I could get the 1990s Arago.exe I would be most appreciative.

Ray

I don't see an e-mail address on Ray's posting, but if he will contact me then I will get back to him. Also, if anyone needs help in dealing with Southern Pacific (not named for the railroad as I once though but for the actual "South Pacific"), I do read Japanese and will try to help. Jim1954 (jimw@gol.com)

My email is rmartin255@gmail.com. Thank you if you can help.