SuperBase Personnal : Facts from a flexible friend
6 min read
Superbase Personal 02
Christina Erskine finds a database that is easy to use and powerful
WHILE it would be unduly pessimistic to say that there is no conventional business software for the Amiga, it is certainly true that much of it is non-standard, and therefore unfamiliar to anyone who has moved to the Amiga from another machine. Thus, if new Amiga business-orientated owners are not to get disheartened quickly, the unfamiliar stuff is going to have to be easy to get to grips with if a measure of disillusionment is not to set in.
Superbase Personal has won plaudits in its PC compatible and ST versions, for its design and ease of use, if for nothing else. Now it is available on the Amiga, and with the current comparative dearth of business software on that machine, is well worth looking at.
Superbase Personal makes full use of the Amiga’s WIMP user interface, with the majority of its functions controlled either by clicking on menus or icons with the mouse, or by alternative Control key codes.
Files, which are invariably asked fur in the opening loading screen, are accessed by the top line menus, using the usual procedure of pointing, clicking and dragging until the right items are highlighted. Once you’ve got a file screen displayed, the easy-of-Use factor of Superbase becomes apparent.
Most of the simple viewing controls for scanning through your records are accessed via a menu bar at the foot of the screen. This menu comprises a series of icons, which roughly correspond to those you would find on any audio or video recorder. Therefore you find your Play. Pause. Fast Forward and Rewind symbols.
This is a masterstroke. How many times have you peered at a set of icons, trying to work out what they arc supposed to represent? Given this lot, even someone who has never encountered a database before will have a pretty good idea of what to do.
Creating your own file is also straightforward, with much of the screen design work being handled by Superbase at this stage and able to be changed later. There is no messing around with x and y coordinates.
THERE is also no limit beyond that of disc memory to the number of fields your database can have, and the procedure for creating files, fields and records is carried out through a series of windows and icons. You’ll need to specify whether your records are to be text only, numeric or date fields, and each brings up its own menu screen for you to select the parameters in which your records will operate.
You can also specify whether data needs to be entered in a particular field useful to ensure that you don’t make any slips and that your records are complete and whether a calculation formula is appropriate. This last means that, for example, suppose you wish to record the VAT payable on a database of items bought or sold, rather than having to calculate 15 per cent every time you add a record, you can tell Superbase to fill it in on each record. You can also set a constant entry for each field. If you want to change your data later, or add to the fields in the file, this is a simple operation.
Superbase is multi-indexable.
You can have up to 999 indices per file. Records can be ordcred and presented on-screen in a number of ways : chronologically by date, towns, surnames, whatever.
Having built up a database file, your video recorder icons enable you to view it. Manipulation involves use of either the filter button from the VCR menu, or the Project option from the top line menu.
You can view your records in a forms, record or table format. The first two are similar in style, with fields running vertically and the data next to them. Table view moves the fields so they are listed horizontally across the top of the screen, with the data underneath.
The main data manipulation functions within Superbase are the filler button from the VCR menu and the Query option from the Process menu. The filter window is where you can select records to view according to mathematical and statistical criteria. The Query option enables you to call up selected records for printing as a report, or just showing up on-screen.
Using the Process Query filtering facilities you can ask Superbase to make arithmetical calculations to print in the report as well. For example, in a customer account database you could have a number of fields for items bought and the VAT on each. You could ask Superbase to print out a selection of files, and to add the total owed by each customer, both excluding and including VAT, to the report.
The filter button is used for selecting records to view, using the field names and calculator style functions, plus AND, OR and LIKE, and “greater than”, “smaller than” and “not equal to”. For example, if you have an addresses index, then anyone living in Nottingham, on the phone and not owning a dog can be called up for reference providing you’d already recorded the level of dog ownership by ADDRESS4 = NOTTINGHAM AND PHONE NUMBER LIKE 0602 AND DOG = 0.
Furthermore, it has an excellent feature which sets it apart from many databases that of being able to contain a database of picture files, all detailed and indexed but also viewable on screen. Such a feature would only recently have been deemed at all relevant in the conventional PC business market. On the Amiga, where one would hope business users are also using the machine’s graphics power, a database that enables you to file away the result for reference should be useful. Again, the filter button allows you to call up a selection of pictures according to the parameters you set.
SUPERBASE’s main strengths are in the manipulation of numbers and currency, and so it is probably best used for businesses which want records of customer accounts. This doesn’t make it any less viable for dog-loving Nottingham residents, but the latter won’t end up using some of its more sophisticated calculation features and shortcuts. Really, it’s a waste and far too pricey to use as a computerised Filofax. That having been said, Superbase has a simple to use label printout facility, with all the filter options available, of course, and so can be happily used for names and addresses as well.
Superbase is significantly easier to get going with than any other database I’ve come across. For this reason, I would certainly recommend it to those unfamiliar with the way databases work.
Paradoxically, the manual, while for the most part clear, is more concerned with getting to know Superbase than getting to know databases in general and is especially glib on starting up and the mechanics of preparing discs, so you will need a good idea of what it is you want to do with it. to get the most out of it.
While the program is memory resident and therefore usable with a single drive Amiga system, it is a lot simpler with a dual drive. You don’t want to keep your records on the master disc or its back-up, and with a single drive system there is. inevitably, an annoying amount of disc-swapping required.
However, the ease-of-use factor is durable; it isn’t just a case of being easy to get into, but it’s also enjoyable to keep going with. the extensive use of the mouse and menu system of choosing parameters and calculations means that it is quick to select your manipulation preferences, and probably easier to learn from experimenting with the menus than on a database which uses control codes and text lines.
This, perhaps more than anything else, makes Superbase an excellent program for anyone starting out on computerising their records, or who is going to have to spend a lot of time working with the derived data who wants to make it as little of a chore as possible.
Report Card
Superbase Personal
Precision Software 01-330 7166 £99,95
USEFULNESS
Superbase is flexible enough to cater for the demands of must users.
EASE OF USE
Simple, meaning meaning featured commands which do not become annoying with proficiency.
INTUITION
Fully integrated along Commodore guidelines. Will Mutlitask.
SPEED
Memory resident code which is not hindered by the AMIGA’s slow drives.
VALUE
Priced a bit high for the home user but still an excellent AMIGA package.
Source : https://archive.org/details/amiga-computing-magazine-001
Source of information – AMIGA Computing of June 1988 – Download of the magazine below:
