R&A SHIPS POSTGRES95 1.0pl14 AS SHAREWARE

Contact: Info@RnA.nl

R&A has ported the POSTGRES95 1.0pl14 database system (a fully object-oriented database from the group that spawned INGRES) to NEXTSTEP 3.x. POSTGRES is a research effort into the realm of future database systems. It has time-travel, abstract data types (objects!) and so on.

R&A distributes POSTGRES via the Internet. It can be found in the directory:

	ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/comp/next/postgres95

The POSTGRES sources are available from the university of California at Berkeley for free. But porting is not trivial and has taken quite some time. This has to do with dependencies in the POSTGRES code on both interface and implementation of the native OS it runs on. We share our code changes with the POSTGRES group at Berkeley so with future releases of POSTGRES and future releases of NEXTSTEP porting will become less an issue.

POSTGRES is not a stable, commercial environment (even if it is used as such here and there) but its key aspects make it popular in research and other advanced environments.

We have ported everything of the POSTGRES95 release, including the dynamic loader. A dbKit or EOF adaptor is not part of the current release.  But as POSTGRES95 uses SQL, the development of one might prove less time consuming than one for the predecessor University Postgres-4.2.

Our patches have been submitted to the POSTGRES group. We expect them to show up in the upcoming POSTGRES95 1.01 release. Our POSTGRES95 1.0pl14 release will be almost equivalent to that release.

We intend to support the NEXTSTEP port of postgres95, but our efforts are limited since we lack the resources (it is after all not a commercial project). The more shareware fees are payed, the better we can support the port. We do make our patches public so the community will not be depending on our effort alone.

SysVIPC

POSTGRES uses System V shared memory and semaphores. R&A sells a package that emulates this under NEXTSTEP called SysVIPC. Since our port of POSTGRES needs the System V shared memory and semaphore functionality, we have made the SysVIPC package shareware for educational purposes and it is available on the net. It can be found in the directory:

	ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/comp/next/SysVIPC/

Postgres-4.2

The NEXTSTEP port of the previous version of Postgres (postgres-4.2) has also been submitted to the net as shareware. It is completely unsupported (unless someone gives us really a lot of money). It can be found in the directory:

	ftp://ftp.nl.net/pub/comp/next/postgres-4.2

Postgres-4.1

The NEXTSTEP port of the pre-previous version of Postgres (postgres-4.1) will be submitted if there really is demand for it.

Postgres-3.x

The NEXTSTEP port of the pre-preprevious version of Postgres (postgres-3.x) is not available.

Contact

R&A
Goudreinetstraat 582
2564 PX Den Haag
The Netherlands
Fax: +31 70 3230851
Email: Info@RnA.NL

We prefer e-mail. NeXTmail welcome.

R&A is a small firm specialized in quality software design and implementation and consultancy. We are specialized in OO, Unix, NEXTSTEP and portability.

Acknowledgements

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