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TOPICS:
------
Overview
Copying
Supported Platforms
Unzipping

OVERVIEW
--------
The Variable Block Database (VBD) library is a collection of C++
classes used to build embedded database engines based on variable
block technology.

Features: 
* WIN32/UNIX database interoperability 
* Supports object-oriented and relational database designs in     
  traditional and client/server applications. 
* Built-in support for multi-threaded database applications. 
* Supports fixed and variable-length records. 
* 99.9999% data integrity ensured by 32-bit CRC checking 
* Offers best-fit and first-fit block allocation methods to       
  prevent database fragmentation 
* Built-in exception handling 
* Allows locking at both the file and node level 
* Ships with an advanced database recovery utility plus other     
  binary utilities.

Example Programs:
Several example programs with makefiles for each of the supported
platform/C++ compilers are provided to test and demonstrate each
component of the library. 

Documentation:
All the documentation for the distribution is provided in an HTML
format. The documentation covers the VBD C++ class library, the
example programs, and the utility programs provided with this
distribution. 

COPYING
-------
The VBD, VBS and VBT C++ classes are copyright (c) 1997 and 2000 
by Douglas M. Gaer.

This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later
version.

This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
Lesser General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
License along with this library; if not, write to the Free
Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA
02111-1307 USA

SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
-------------------
Variable Block Database source code and the database files
themselves are designed to be portable between DOS, Windows
95/98/NT, RISC and Intel based UNIX variants. The VBD C++ class
library and the example programs have been compiled and tested
using the following target platforms: 

WIN32 - Microsoft Visual C++ version 4.2 and higher
WIN32 - Borland BCC32 version 5.5
HP-UX B.10.20 A 9000/819 - HP92453-01 G.10.32.05 HP C Compiler
HP-UX B.11.00 A 9000/780 - HP92453-01 A.11.01.00 HP C Compiler
Red Hat Linux release 5.2 (Apollo) Kernel 2.0.36 on an i586 - gcc
version egcs-2.90.29 980515 (egcs-1.0.3 release)
SunOS 5.8 Generic sun4u sparc SUNW, Ultra-5_10 - Sun WorkShop C++
5.0 (4.2 compatibility mode)

UNZIPPING THE DISTRIBUTION
--------------------------
The entire distribution requires approximately 5 MB of free disk
space to unzip. Two distributions are available, one for Windows
95/98 and one for UNIX. 

Windows 95:
To unzip this distribution you will need a copy of PKZIP version
2.03 for DOS or WINZIP version 6.1 or higher for Windows 95. To
unzip using PKZIP 2.03 follow these instructions: 

C:\>mkdir vbdbase
C:\>copy vbd2000.zip c:\vbdbase
C:\>cd vbdbase
C:\vbdbase>pkunzip -d vbd2000.zip

UNIX:
To unzip this distribution you need a copy GZIP/GUNZIP version
1.2.4 or higher. To unzip using GZIP and the UNIX tar utility
follow these instructions: 

% gzip -d vbd2000.tgz
% tar xvf vbd2000.tar

To unzip using GUNZIP and the UNIX tar utility follow these
instructions: 

% gunzip vbd2000.tgz 
% tar xvf vbd2000.tar

NOTE: You can use UNZIP for UNIX version 5.12 to unzip the
Windows 95/98 distribution: 

% mkdir vbdbase
% cp vbd2000.zip vbdbase\vbd2000.zip
% cd vbdbase
% unzip -a -L vbd2000.zip

The unzip "-a" option will auto-convert any text files and the
"-L" option will make the directory and file names all lower
case. 
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