Data Compatibility Is Key To Success of PenPoint

If you’ve had some experience using PCs, you’re familiar with the problem of incompatible data types. For example, you may use dBASE, but another department in your office might use Paradox. If you use a Macintosh, the situation isn’t much better. You might have a database in FileMaker and a list of names and addresses formatted in Address Book Plus — incompatible data types. Of course, you can translate data from one type to another using a conversion program or dump databases into ASCII comma delimited format. But you have to think about it. One of the main ideas behind PenPoint is that the user doesn’t have to think about the operation of the computer. Essentially, it behaves like a notebook, except that it has a lot more data to work with and it can store electronically information that you enter with the pen. The last thing PenPoint users will want to worry about is data compatibility.

Embedded Document Architecture

PenPoint has a chance to avoid this problem, or at least greatly minimize it, by providing an underlying database structure in the operating system that can be used by all application developers. According to Robert Carr, one of the founders of GO, PenPoint already addresses this problem at the user level. The Embedded Document Architecture (EDA) allows applications with different data types to reside in a single document and to exchange data. Carr says that it will be possible, for example, to drag a bunch of name and address records from PenSoft’s Personal Information Manager directly into a spreadsheet or database document from another vendor. Similar to Microsoft’s Dynamic Data Exchange (DDE), PenPoint will handle transparently data exchange between applications, says Carr. Data transfer will be managed by the Selection and Transfer Managers in PenPoint. According to Carr, GO has not finalized what data formats will be supported by these manager utilities.

Slate Touts DAA

At the remote data access level, Slate is hoping to promote its DAA (Data Access Architecture) as the standard for accessing data from remote machines, whether they are mainframes running DB2, or PCs running dBASE or Paradox. DAA is an “interface specification,” says Slate’s VP of Development, Debby Meredith. “It is a set of PenPoint classes that provide a common interface to data sources.” In other words, developers can write “services” using the DAA specification that access specific data types. Data from different sources will look exactly the same to applications that support DAA. For example, the electronic forms in Slate’s PenApps application will treat dBASE data and data from a DB2 mainframe exactly alike. In fact, the application does not care what the data source is if the data is transferred through DAA.

The main designer of DAA, Slate’s Matt Kursh told us that it takes a developer “about 4 days” to write a DAA service for a specific data type. Slate will provide developers with sample DAA dialogs for accessing DBF and WKS files.

PenSoft Has The Database

At the database level, PenSoft has developed a full ISAM (Indexed Sequential Access Method) database that underlies its Personal Information Manager. PenSoft’s founder, Michael Baum, hopes that GO might adopt his company’s database as a standard component of PenPoint. But, as Robert Carr puts it, “no one size fits all.” By necessity, says Carr, there will be more than one database structure supported in PenPoint. Carr thinks that PenPoint will support a wide range of databases, and does not rule out the possibility of closer cooperation with both Slate and PenSoft.

According to what Robert Carr tells us, it appears that the Embedded Document Architecture will do the job at the user level. At the programming level, tools like DAA and a basic underlying database structure similar to PenSoft’s will help developers create more consistent applications and will make software development more efficient. Hopefully, GO and its third party development partners will be able to cooperate in this important area and arrive at some broadly accepted standards.

Quotes From The Field: “The last thing we need is another operating system.” — Fred Gibbons, Software Publishing