At 07:39 04.05.1997 -0700, Gary wrote:
>Will SAMBA allow access to TurboImage Databases?  Where can I get more info
>about this product?

Hi Gary,

I'm afraid, Samba will not allow access to TurboIMAGE or other MPE specific
file or database types easily. As Michael Gueterman already mentioned, Samba
is mainly a Unix (and now MPE/iX) implementation of Microsoft's SMB protocol
which offers file and printer sharing services for networked PC's.

PC's (and Unix) have no concept of file types like MPE has. They basically
have the bytestream file concept i.e. a file is just a bunch of bytes and
the application program has to define and deal with whatever structure the
data in the file might have. There are no file attributes like text/binary
or record-size and record-structure or even types like KSAM (at the file
system level).

So, even when the Samba server program SMBD would be enhanced to be able to
open PRIV files like TurboIMAGE databases, the PC side would basically have
no idea of record-oriented access like DBGET or DBUPDATE. Another example is
KSAM. The server program can open these files but the Posix interface (and
the PC client) have no concept of record-access like FREADBYKEY or FUPDATE.

While there is a lot of interest in Samba/iX these days, I still have to
emphasize that Samba is not "the ultimate solution" for all PC connectivity
situations. (Okay okay, it does some things quite well already ;-)

For TurboIMAGE database access from PC clients it seems to me that you might
want to investigate ODBC based solutions (with or without IMAGE/SQL layer) or
-if programming on PC side is an option- middleware like Netbase Client or
LeeTech Client/Server Foundation or MiddleMan or EDA/SQL or (...)

Even for Samba-like connectivity e.g. PC based file editing, file management
GUI etc. there might be situations where the generic SMB port has restrictions
or (currently) lacks features that are sometimes available in products like
Facade or SpeedEdit or StarGate or Whispertech FTP Plus or GUI/3000 or (...)
which are more "MPE aware" than Samba because they have been designed for MPE.

(Please notice that I am not intending to plug any of the products that I have
mentioned above as I have no experience with them myself and as I am sure that
I have forgotten to mention a large number of other interesting products!)

Find more info about Samba/iX at ftp://ftp.3k.com/POSIX/samba.htm as well as
the Samba[/iX] related web pages at Michael Gueterman's http://www.editcorp.com
as well as the upcoming C/S phone conference.

Info on Samba for Unix can also be found at http://lake.canberra.edu.au in "Oz".

Finally find info and pointers to HP 3000 related products for database access
from PC clients at the Product/Vendor directories at 3k Associates' web site
http://www.3k.com as well as the Interex web site http://www.interex.org (under
publications). I'm sorry but I can't recall the European or UK user groups URLs
by heart... but they might have similar "yellow pages".

Hope this helps (at least a little).

:-) Lars