At 06:14 PM 12/5/97 P, Steve Dirickson b894 WestWin wrote:
>If I know absolutely that SSI is available, I
>don't even have to think about, much less write code for (which means
>test, debug, certify, whatever) the checks for its presence, or for
>alternative paths if it is not available.

Yes, true, especially when one is developing a new product.  However,
for vendors with existing customers one indeed has to be sensitive
to the availability of features on the user's system and utilize them
if they exist and when they add value.

As it turns out, automatic detection/enabling of b-trees is fairly
simple:

          DBINFO(209)   (or DBCONTROL(14))
          IF (status = -31 (bad mode))
             IMAGE version does not support b-trees
             btrees = .FALSE.
          ELSE
             IF (status <> 0)
                (hmmm...some type of unexpected IMAGE error)
                btrees = .FALSE.  (case error is ignored)
             ELSE
                IF (DBINFO_BUFFER(1) = 0) THEN
                    (close the base)
                    (run DBUTIL and ADDINDEX to this master)
                    IF successful THEN
                       btrees = .TRUE.
                    ELSE
                       btrees = .FALSE.
                    ENDIF
                    (re-open the base)
                ELSE
                    btrees = .TRUE.
                ENDIF
             ENDIF
          ENDIF

Coding alternate paths to take advantage of it is another issue and
obviously dependent on the application...

Also, when developing a new product, if one explicitly requires
certain other products/versions of products exist, there is a risk
that a potential customers will be excluded from being able to afford
the new product simply because they can't also pay for the other
products needed to upgrade their environment.

So when developing something for the market place one has to decide
whether to require the existance of other product and possibly limit
the potential market or code for more than one situation and have
a broader marketing opportunity....  Especially when the market is
in a state of transition, as availability of b-trees will be for the
next couple years until the community has completely moved to at least
5.5 Exp. 3.

Prior to my working at Bradmark, I had seen potential sales of a new
application fail simply because the total cost to the customer in order
to have all the other tools to make the application function were
beyond the available resources that the organization had available or
felt was worth the expense when compared to the anticipated benefits.



/jf
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                         Friday, December 5th

            Today, in 1933 - The 21st Amendment took affect.
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                             session in Philadelphia.

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