Archive-name: databases/free-databases
Last-modified: 1994/07/06
Version: 1.10


 Catalog of Free Database Systems

This document attemts to catalog databases that are 
available without payment and with source.  

The latest version of the document can be ftp'ed: get
pub/free-databases from ftp.idiom.com.

I will post this document about once a month to comp.databases,
comp.databases.object, comp.answers, and news.answers. I will 
also post it to other groups somewhat randomly.

Please send additions, corrections, and donations to 
David Muir Sharnoff <free-databases@idiom.com>


I would like user testimonials.  I want to know which databases
are usable and which are trustable!  Is there any database on
this list that I could store payroll records on?

Thanks,

-Dave
Idiom Consulting, Berkeley, CA


Copyright (C) 1993,1994 David Muir Sharnoff, All rights reserved.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Prototype entry:

name:  The name of the package
version: The current version number of the package
  direct inquiries to "contact."
interface from: (interfaces only) front end protocol/program/language
interface to: (interfaces only) back end protocol/program/server/etc.
interfaces: The external interfaces that are supported by
  the package.  Common interfaces are: SQL, ESQL,
  dbm, etc.
access methods: A list of the access methods that are supported
multiuser: Can more than one person access the package at
  the same time. 
transactions: Does the package support transactions?
distributed: Does the package support distributed databases?
query language: What query languages does the package support
  if any?  SQL, QUEL, etc.
index size: (full text only) the size of the index as a percentage
  of the size of the text to be indexed.
limits:  Any known, annoying limits
robustness: Can this package be used on mission-critical data?  Is the
  package bug free?  Does it crash?  If it supports multi-user
  transactions, does it make guarentees and keep them?
description: A description of the package.
references: Pointers to other documentation
status:  current developement status (supported, actively developed, etc)
announcements: Where to get announcements
discussion: Where to send, or how to join discussions about
  the package
bugs:  Where to send bug reports
requires: Special requirements for installing or running
ports:  What does the package run on?
restrictions: Special copyright or other restrictions on the software
author:  The primary author, if known.  If not known, 
contact: The current contact point.  If not specified, 
  use "author."
how to get: Instructions for obtaining the package
updated: When the package was last updated (yyyy/mm/dd) [often
  incorrect]
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Selected changes:

 new listings: 
  pfl - Persistant Functional Language
  Willow - an X front end to text lookup services
 updates:
  ConceptBase - version V3.3 released
  LINCKS - version 2.2.1 released
  Sybperl - version 1.011 released
  dbf - another version released in comp.sources.misc vol 43
  OBST - version 3-4 released

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- relational databases --------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  DiamondBase
version: 0.2
interfaces: C++ library
access methods: b+ tree
multiuser: Alpha in this version
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: C++ methods
limits:  limits are set at compile time.  The default max records 
  is 21474836.
robustness: The database engine is quite stable. The multi-user extensions
  are a recent addition and are still considered to be an alpha
  version. The single user version is separate however and
  unaffected.
description: DiamondBase is written entirely in C++, and uses a schema
  compiler to generate C++ class defintions for the objects, as
  well as some comparison code which is also linked in to the
  final executable. Facilities are now available to access
  generic relations without providing comparison code. It was
  written originally as a replacement for MetalBase which was too
  slow.  DiamondBase is very fast.
announcements: send mail to Darren Platt to be put on their list
questions: send mail to Darren Platt
bugs:  send mail to Darren Platt
requires: C++
ports:  many Unix platforms and OS/2 under cfront or gcc or 
  Borland's compiler.
restrictions: Free usage for non-commerical applications -- negotiate
  anything else.
author:  Kevin Lentin, Andrew Davison, Darren Platt
contact: Darren Platt <darrenp@dibbler.cs.monash.edu.au>
how to get: ftp pub/export/? from pippin.cs.monash.edu.au
updated: 1993/11/06

name:  University INGRES
version: 8.9
interfaces: QUEL, EQUEL
access methods: heap, hash, isam, ordered
multiuser: yes
transactions: yes, but no multistatement transactions.  Each statement
  is ACID
distributed: no
query language: QUEL
limits:  ?
robustness: Very mature technology
description: This is the database program that was the basis for INGRES
  Corporation.  Obviously, it does not have all the bells 
  and whistles of the current commercial product.  However,
  it is small and fast and it works.
  So called ordered relations are slow and not locked.
references: "The INGRES Papers" Stonebraker ed. Addison Wesley
ports:  SunOS, Linux
author:  The Ingres project at UC Berkeley.  
contact: <ingres-mail@idiom.com>
how to get: ftp pub/ingres/* from s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU
updated: 1993/05/20

name:  MetalBase
version: 5.0
interfaces: custome C library
access methods: AVL-trees
multiuser: yes, but in theory race conditions still exist
transactions: yes
distributed: no
query language: "Report", and "View Relation" a curses based viewer
limits:  ?
robustness: data corruption is possible when MetalBase is not shut 
  down correctly
description: MetalBase is a small relational database.  It has all the
  pieces that a relational database should C interface, curses
  interface, report writer, etc. It does not have design which
  takes advantage of shared memory or the better access methods.
  None of the interfaces are standard, but all of them are easy
  to use.
discussion: mbase-request@internode.com.au
requires: curses
ports:  Linux, MS-DOS, Amiga, NeXT, Coherent, Macintosh MPW, SGI, Xenix
restrictions: donations are suggested
author:  Richid Jernigan / PO Box 827 / Norris TN 37828
how to get: ftp systems/unix/linux/sources/usr.bin/mbase.tar.z 
  from ftp.uu.net
updated: 1992/10/01

name:  Postgres
version: 4.2 beta
interfaces: libpq (C interface), pgbrowse (tk-based browser)
access methods: Heap plus secondary indexes: B-tree, R-tree, Hash.
multiuser: yes
transactions: yes
distributed: no
query language: Postquel (incompatable, extended variant of QUEL)
limits:  ?
robustness: The authors say: "It is not up to commercial levels of 
  reliability.  I would not want _my_ payroll records in it :-)"
description: Postgres is a database research project under Prof. Michael
  Stonebraker at U. C. Berkeley. To facilitate research
  efforts, a software test-bed was created; this is the
  "Postgres" DBMS software.  The Postgres DBMS is extended
  relational or object oriented, depending on the buzzword du
  jour.  Postgres is relational. It is highly extensible.  It
  has object oriented features like inheritance. it has query
  language procedures, rules, updatable views, and more.
references: There are may papers available, both through ftp and as
  hard-copy technical reports.  Cruse the ftp site for papers
  or mail Michelle Mattera <michelle@postgres.berkeley.edu>
discussion: send "Subject: ADD" to postgres-request@postgres.berkeley.edu
    linux: send "X-Mn-Admin: join postgres" 
  to linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi
bugs:  <bug-postgres@postgres.berkeley.edu>
ports:  full support: Alpha OSF/1 1.3+, Mips Ultrix .2+, 
   Sparc SunOS 4.1.1+, Power AIX 3.2.3+, HP-PA HP-UX 9.0+
  comming soon: Sparc Solaris 2.3, i386 Linux
  previous versions: i386 SVR4, i386 386BSD, i386 Linux, 
   i386 NextStep 3.1, NeXT NextStep 3.0, 
   Sparc Solaris 2.1+, HP-PA HP-UX 8.07
contact: developers: <postgres-questions@postgres>
  admin: Michelle Mattera <michelle@postgres.berkeley.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/postgres/postgres-v4r2* from s2k-ftp.CS.Berkeley.EDU.
    pgbrowse: ftp pub/pgbrowse/* from crseo.ucsb.edu.
updated: 1994/04/02

name:  REQUIEM
version: ?
interfaces: RQL, ERQL (extension)
access methods: B-tree indexes can be created on attributes of base relations.
multiuser: yes (multiuser extension)
transactions: yes (multiuser extension)
distributed: no
query language: RQL
robustness: [seems to maintained by zero to few people --ed]
description: REQUIEM (RElational Query and Update Interactive systEM) is 
  an extensible, relational DBMS developed in C with a query 
  language based on the relational algebra called RQL (Relational
  Query Language).
  There appears to be three versions of REQUIEM: the base
  version and two extensions.  One extension adds multiuser
  capability.  The other adds an embeddable version of the
  query langauge.
references: "An Extensible DBMS for Small-Medium Scale Systems",
  Papazoglou, M.P., IEEE Micro, April 1989.
  Relational Database Management - A Systems Programming 
  Approach, Papazoglou, M.P. and Valder, W., Prentice Hall 
  International, UK, 1989.
  "The Development of a Program Interface for the RDBMS Requiem"
  Power, R.A., 1991 Honours Thesis (dvi file available with 
  source code for the embedded version).
ports:  Sparc/SunOS; base version only: MS-DOS, Macintosh
contact: (embedded version only) 
  Robert Power <robert.power@csis.dit.csiro.au>
how to get: ftp pub/requiem/REQUIEM.tar.Z (multiuser version) or
  pub/requiem/Requiem.tar.Z (embeddable version) 
  from dcssoft.anu.edu.au 
  The base version can be constructed from the multiuser version.
updated: 1992/10/06

name:  shql
version: 1.2 patch 02
interfaces: SQL, shell
multiuser: no
transactions: no ?
distributed: no
limits:  no NULLs in the data, spaces and backslashes may be added when 
  the data contains punctuation, GROUP BY is not implemented.
robustness: it is a shell script.
description: Shql is a program that reads SQL commands interactively and
  executes those commands by creating and manipulating Unix
  files. The program is patterned after Ingres' interactive sql
  terminal monitor program.
requires: bourne shell with functions, awk, grep, cut, sort, uniq, join,
  wc, and sed
author:  Bruce Momjian <root%candle.uucp@bts.com>
how to get: comp.sources.misc volumes 34, 41 and 42.
updated: 1994/03/06

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- object oriented -------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  Arjuna Distributed Programming System
version: 2.0
interfaces: C++
access methods: ?
multiuser: yes
transactions: yes, nested
distributed: yes, includes replicated objects
query language: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: "all reported bugs fixed"
description: Arjuna is a programming system for reliable distributed
  computing. Arjuna supports nested atomic actions for
  controlling operations on objects (instances of C++ classes),
  which can potentially be persistent. The software available
  includes a C++ stub generator which hides much of the details
  of client-server based programming, plus a system programmer's
  manual containing details of how to install Arjuna and use it
  to build fault-tolerant distributed applications.
discussion: send "join arjuna YOUR-NAME-HERE" to mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk
ports:  UNIX: Suns, HPs, etc.
restrictions: A commercial extension exists.
contact: arjuna@newcastle.ac.uk
how to get: ftp ? from arjuna.ncl.ac.uk
updated: 1993/05/15

name:  EXODUS Project software
version: GNU E 2.3.3, Storage Manager (SM) 3.1
interfaces: GNU E, (C++ for direct access to the Storage Manager)
access methods: B+tree and linear-hashing based indexes
multiuser: yes, client-server
transactions: yes, but not nested.
distributed: yes, applications can access multiple servers in a single
  transaction.  Distributed commits are performed across servers
  and clients have access to an interface allowing participation
  in distributed commits managed by an external agent.
query language: GNU E -- a persistent programming language based on C++
robustness: High (at least for academic software).
  The SM release includes a facility for regression
  testing most features, including crash recovery.
description: The EXODUS Storage Manager (SM) is a client-server object
  storage system which provides "storage objects" for storing
  data, versions of objects, "files" for grouping related storage
  objects, and indexes for supporting efficient object access.  A
  storage object is an uninterpreted container of bytes which can
  range in size from a few bytes to hundreds of megabytes.  The
  Storage Manager provides routines to read, overwrite, and
  efficiently grow and shrink objects.  In addition, the Storage
  Manager provides transactions, lock-based concurrency control,
  and log-based recovery.
  GNU E is a persistent, object oriented programming language
  developed as part of the Exodus project.  GNU E extends C++
  with the notion of persistent data, program level data objects
  that can be transparently used across multiple executions of a
  program, or multiple programs, without explicit input and
  output operations.
references: A bibliography of EXODUS related papers can be obtained from
  the ftp site described below.  Some of the papers are available
  from the ftp server as technical reports, and are marked as
  such in the bibliography.
status:  No longer being developed.  However, the authors are working
  on a new system, SHORE, and will support current Exodus 
  users well enough to keep them going until SHORE is useable.
  GNU E 2.5.8 is in beta and can be ftped.
discussion: Send "information exodus_all" to listproc@cs.wisc.edu to
  find out how to join the exodus_all mailing list.
bugs:  exodusbugs@cs.wisc.edu
requires: g++ 2.3.3 (exactly 2.3.3.  GNU E 2.5.8 is in beta)
ports:  MIPS/Ultrix, SPARC/SunOS, HP 7xx/HP-UX
restrictions: none, but see copyright notice located in all source files 
author:  The EXODUS Database Toolkit project at the 
  University of Wisconsin
contact: exodus@cs.wisc.edu
how to get: ftp exodus/* from ftp.cs.wisc.edu
updated: 1993/03/29

name:  LINCKS (Linkoping Intelligent Communication of Knowledge System)
version: 2.2.1
interfaces: C library, emacs-like editor/X11
access methods: ?
multiuser: yes
transactions: no
distributed: no, but maybe later
query language: hypertext-ish X user interface
robustness: The underlaying store handler (NODE) has been used since '89
  and is quite stable. The system have betweem 20 to 500 users.
description: LINCKS is an object-centred multi-user database system
  developed for complex information system applications where
  editing and browsing of information in the database is of
  paramount importance.  The focus is on sharing of small
  information chunks which combine to make up complex information
  objects used by different users for different purposes. The
  information chunks are semi-structured in that they contain one
  part which is well-structured to facilitate addition of A.I.
  processing within the system, and one part which is
  unstructured and suitable for management by the user.
  Features: shared composite objects, database history, 
  atlernative views, change collision notification (when more
  than one person makes changes to the same composite object)
references: ftp://ftp.ida.liu.se/pub/lincks/articles/cscw.ps.gz
announcements: lincks@ida.liu.se
discussion: lincks-users-request@ida.liu.se
bugs:  lincks-bugs@ida.liu.se
requires: Unix, X11R5
ports:  Sun4/SunOS 4.1.[123], Sun4/SunOS 5.2, Sun3, Decstation, Alpha,
  RS/6000, Sequent Symmetry, Linux, HP-UX, SGI, SCO, SVR4.2, Sony
restrictions: GNU General Public License
author:  Lin Padgham, Ralph Ronnquist; University of Linkoping, Sweden
contact: lincks@ida.liu.se
how to get: ftp pub/lincks/lincks-2.2.tar.gz from ftp.ida.liu.se
    usa: ftp pub/database/lincks/lincks-2.2.tar.gz from ftp.uu.net
    usa: ftp pub/net/infosys/lincks/lincks-2.2.tar.gz 
  from gatekeeper.dec.com
updated: 1994/06/05

name:  OBST
version: 3-4
interfaces: C++, tcl, schema compiler, graphical object browser
access methods: extendable hashtable
multiuser: yes, but writing locks entire tables
transactions: yes
distributed: not yet
query language: C++, tcl, graphical object browser
limits:  4 GB per container, 2^32 containers
robustness: OBST is quite stable since the start of '93. Releases were
  made to enhance the coding quality rather than to add new
  features. There are somewhere between 50 and 500 users.
description: The persistent object management system OBST was developed by
  Forschungszentrum Informatik (FZI) as a contribution to the
  STONE project (supported by grant no. ITS8902A7 from the BMFT,
  i.e. the German Ministry for Research).
  OBST was originally designed to serve as the common persistent
  object store for the tools of an software engineering
  environment.
  An essential feature of STONE is that the object oriented
  paradigm is pursued consequently as a key concept. OBST is the
  common persistent object store for all tools within the STONE
  environment.
  OBST provides a rich OO model including multiple inheritance,
  generics, overloading, and privacy.  The schema definition
  language is syntactically similar to C++.  It comes with a
  library of pre-defined classes like Set<Entity>, and
  List<Entity>.  New methods can be incrementally loaded at
  runtime.
announcements: send 'add <your-address> obst-announce' to obst-listserv@fzi.de
discussion: send 'add <your-address> obst-forum' to obst-listserv@fzi.de
bugs:  send OBST version, configuration options, C++ version, machine,
  OS, and a description of your problem to <obst@fzi.de>.
requires: A C++ compiler (G++ 2.3.3-2.5.8 or AT&T 2.1/3.01)
ports:  UNIX: SPARC/SunOS 4.1, Solaris 2, Linux, HP-UX, ...
contact: obst@fzi.de
how to get: ftp pub/OBST/OBST3-4 from ftp.fzi.de
    usa: ftp pub/database/obst/? from ftp.uu.net
    uk:  ftp computing/databases/OBST/? from src.doc.ic.ac.uk
updated: 1994/06/29

name:  pfl
version: 0.1
interfaces: built-in persistent functional programming language
access methods: ?
multiuser: ?
transactions: ?
distributed: ?
query language: ?
index size: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: alpha release
description: pfl is a persistent programming language and database 
  environment.  The language is functional.
references: ?
announcements: ?
discussion: ?
bugs:  SunOS: author, Linux: Tim Holmes <timh@psammead.demon.co.uk>
requires: GNU C++
ports:  Linux, SunOS
restrictions: GNU General Public License
author:  Carol Small <carol@dcs.bbk.ac.uk>
how to get ftp pub/unix/linux/pfl-0.1-linux.tgz from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: 1994/05/31

name:  The Texas Persistent Store
version: 0.1
interfaces: C++ library
access methods: ?
multiuser: not yet
transactions: not yet
distributed: not yet
query language: ?
index size: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: beta software
description: Texas is a simple, portable, high-performance persistent store
  for C++ using "pointer swizzling at page fault time" to
  translate persistent addresses to hardware-supported virtual
  addresses.  Texas is built on top of a normal virtual memory,
  and relies on the underlying virtual memory system for
  caching.  Texas is easy to use, and is implemented as a UNIX
  library.  It is small and can be linked into applications.  It
  requires no special operating system privileges, and
  persistence is orthogonal to type---objects may be allocated on
  either a conventional transient heap, or on the persistent
  heap, as desired.  Texas supports simple checkpointing of heap
  data.
references: ftp pub/garbage/*.ps from cs.utexas.edu
announcements: send mail to oops@cs.utexas.edu
discussion: ?
bugs:  ?
requires: ?
ports:  SunOS, Ultrix, Sun CC, GNU C++
restrictions: ?
author:  ?
contact: oops@cs.utexas.edu
how to get: ftp pub/garbage/texas/? from cs.utexas.edu
updated: ?

name:  William's Object Oriented Database (Wood)
version: 0.6 
interfaces: MCL 2.0
access methods: custom
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none. Has BTrees for indexing.
limits:  Will slow down when the database size exceeds
  256 megabytes. Otherwise, database size limited
  by disk size (up to Macintosh limit, which is,
  I believe, 4 gigabytes). Object size limited
  to 24 megabytes. If you think of a Wood database
  as a random access FASL file, you'll have the
  right idea.
robustness: Until it has a real logging/recovery mechanism,
  I wouldn't advise using it for mission critical
  data. Caches pages in memory, so if you crash,
  you will lose. Has a function to flush the
  cache to disk, so you can do explicit checkpoints
  to make it more robust.
description: Wood is a simple persistent store for MCL 2.0.
  This is still alpha software. It is incomplete: though you can
  save/restore all Lisp objects to/from a file, there is no
  transaction/recovery manager and no garbage collector for the
  persistent heap. I will not be able to provide much support,
  but you get source code.
discussion: info-wood-request@cambridge.apple.com
bugs:  bug-wood@cambridge.apple.com
ports:  Macintosh CommonLisp 2.0
author:  Bill St. Clair <bill@cambridge.apple.com>
how to get: ftp pub/mcl2/contrib/wood* from cambridge.apple.com
updated: 1993/03/07

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- deductive databases ---------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  Aditi Deductive Database System
version: beta release
interfaces: motif, command line, NU-Prolog
access methods: Base relations contain variable sized records. Base relations
  can be indexed with B-trees or multi-level signature files
  (superimposed code words) allowing multi-attribute indexing and
  querying, or they can be stored as unindexed flat files.
multiuser: yes
transactions: next release
distributed: ?
query language: prolog, graphical (Motif)
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: Aditi is a multi-user deductive database system.  It supports
  base relations defined by facts (relations in the sense of
  relational databases) and derived relations defined by rules
  that specify how to compute new information from old
  information.  The old information can be from derived relations
  as well as base relations; the rules of derived relations may
  be recursive.  Both base relations and the rules defining
  derived relations are stored on disk and are accessed as
  required during query evaluation.
ports:  SPARC/SunOS, MIPS/IRIX
author:  The development of the Aditi system started in 1988 by
  Professor Kotagiri Ramamohanarao, and many people have been
  involved in its development, in particular Jayen Vaghani, Tim
  Leask, Peter Stuckey, John Shepherd, Zoltan Somogyi, James
  Harland and David Kemp. The support of Kim Marriott, David
  Keegel, and Warwick Harvey is also acknowledged.
contact: aditi@cs.mu.oz.au
how to get: send email to aditi@cs.mu.oz.au
updated: 1992/12/17

name:  ConceptBase
version: V3.3
interfaces: Prolog, C, C++
access methods: TELL and ASK 
multiuser: yes  
transactions: primitive (no concurrency)
distributed: no (but can be extended to do so)
query language: CBQL ("query classes")
limits:  system is rather slow for objects bases larger than 
  10000 objects
robustness: used by 100+ institutes, thereby quite robust
description: ConceptBase is a deductive object base manager, i.e., it
  combines object-oriented principles with logical deduction.
references: see WorldWideWeb entry:
  <http://www.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/I5/CBdoc/cbflyer.html>
bugs:  CB@picasso.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
ports:  SunOS 4.1.3, Solaris 2.3 (both on SunSPARC)
restrictions: ConceptBase is distributed by "contact", only. It is not
  public domain. The source agreeement prohibits commercial
  and military use.
author:  ConceptBase Team 
contact: <jeusfeld@informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
  ConceptBase Team, c/o Manfred Jeusfeld, RWTH Aachen, 
  Informatik V,
  Ahornstr. 55, 52056 Aachen, Germany
how to get: ftp /pub/CB from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
updated: 1994/06/08

name:  CORAL
version: 0.1  (Version 1.0 expected shortly)
interfaces: Exodus storage mangager, C++
access methods: Hash-based and B+ tree indices
multiuser: When used with Exodus
transactions: When used with Exodus
distributed: ?
query language: Prolog-like with SQL-style extensions; C++ interface
limits:  No type checking; only atomic values in persistent relations
robustness: Research software; used for teaching and in research projects,
  but some bugs remain
description: The CORAL deductive database/logic programming system was
  developed at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  The CORAL
  declarative language is based on Horn-clause rules with
  extensions like SQL's group-by and aggregation operators, and
  uses a Prolog-like syntax.  Many evaluation techniques are
  supported, including bottom-up fixpoint evaluation and top-down
  backtracking.  Disk-resident data is supported via an interface
  to the Exodus storage manager; however, CORAL can run without
  Exodus if disk-resident relations are not required.  
  A good interface to C++ is provided.  Relations defined using 
  the declarative language can be manipulated from C++ code, 
  and relations defined using C++ code can be used in declarative 
  rules. C++ code defining relations can be incrementally loaded.
requires: AT&T C++ 2.0 or later
ports:  Decstations, Sun 4, Sparc, HP Snakes 
author:  The CORAL group consists of R. Ramakrishnan, P. Seshadri,
  D. Srivastava and S. Sudarshan.  The following people made
  important contributions: T. Arora, P. Bothner, V. Karra 
  and W.G. Roth. Several other people were also involved:  
  J. Albert, T. Ball, L. Chan, M. Das, S. Goyal, R. Netzer 
  and S. Sterner.
contact: Raghu Ramakrishnan <raghu@ricotta.cs.wisc.edu>
how to get: ftp from ftp.cs.wisc.edu
updated: 1993/02/12

name:  MOOD5 (Material's Object-Oriented Database)
version: 1.0
interfaces: Virtually none. 
access methods: ?
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: Query-by-example object retrieval + some
limits:  The database is memory resident when in use and cannot
  exceed 16MB.
robustness: Operation is fairly stable but by no means for
  mission-critical data. Mostly useful for experimentation.
description: MOOD5 is an object-oriented database system written in Prolog.
  Unlike other general purpose OODBS, the system is meant to be
  used by non-programmer end-users with its unified user
  interface named the Object-Editor, or OE, in short. Therefore,
  the program may better be described as an OODB application. It
  is developed for the purpose of exprimenting the power of OODB
  in dealing with complex material data. As a result, it contains
  may novel features which are considered to be necessary to
  support material database practice such as the reasoning for
  data retrieval, the support of literal expressions for physical
  quantities, and so on. Interest from engineers/scientists who
  are to deal with a bulk of experimental data (not only from
  materials) and programmers in association with them are very
  much appreciated.
announcements: comp.databases.object, sci.materials
discussion: author
bugs:  author
ports:  IBM/NEC-PC/MS-DOS
author:  Noboru Ono <ono@mood.mech.tohoku.ac.jp>
how to get: ftp pub/mood from mood.mech.tohoku.ac.jp 
    usa: ftp pub/database/mood from ftp.uu.net 
    uk:  ftp pub/computing/databases/mood from src.doc.ic.ac.uk
updated: 1994/05/17

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- special purpose -------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  GRAS (GRAph-oriented database System)
version: 5.90/9 [[6.0 alpha]]
interfaces: Navigational programming interfaces for C and Modula-2
access methods: tries fro database pages, static hashing within pages
multiuser: Very restricted single writer/multiple reader access
  [[6.0: shared read/write access with locks on a per-session, 
  transaction, or operation basis]]
transactions: yes; based on backwards logs.  Checkpoints allow roll-back (and
  roll-forward) to a previous state.  
distributed: no.  [[6.0: Multiclient/multiserver architecture]]
query language: PROGRES (PROgrammed Graph Rewriting Systems; a language released
  separately)
limits:  2**16 nodes per database and 2**16 databases per multi-database
  [[6.0: 2**32 nodes]]
robustness: Has been successfully used as the underlying database for
  a number of research prototypes and one commercial product.
  Guarantees recovery from (almost) all application/system crashes
description: GRAS is a database system which has been designed according
  to the requirements resulting from software engineering
  applications. Software development environments are composed
  of tools which operate on complex, highly structured data.
  In order to model such data in a natural way, we have selected
  attributed graphs as GRAS' underlying data model.
  The current version has programming interfaces for Modula-2 and 
  C and supports:
  - persistent attributed, directed node- and edge-labeled 
    graphs (including long attributes and indexes)
  - temporary/volatile generic sets, binary relations, and lists,
  - graph modification triggers causing further modifications
  - primitives for version control comprising the capability
    for efficiently storing graphs as forward/backward deltas 
  - primitives for declaring graph schemes and for incremental
    evaluation of derived attributes (constraints).
  In additon, there are tools for compressing and displaying 
  graphs.  The GRAS system may be considered to be the core of a
  graph oriented DBMS environment.  The environment is based on a
  VHLL called PROGRESS.  This environment supports: a
  syntax-directed editor for graph schemes, rewrite rules and
  sequences of rules; an incremental consistency checker; an
  incremental compiler&interpreter for PROGRESS; an enhanced
  graph browser
references: Kiesel, Schuerr, Westfechtel: GRAS, A Graph-Oriented Database
  System for (Software) Engineering Applications. Proc. CASE 93,
  Lee, Reid, Jarzabek (eds.): Proc. CASE '93, 6th Int. Conf. on
  Computer-Aided Software Engineering, IEEE Computer Society
  Press (1993), pp 272-286.  Available by ftp as TR AIB 92-44.
  Schuerr: PROGRES: A VHL-Language Based on Graph Grammars,
  in Proc. 4th Int. Workshop on Graph-Grammars and Their
  Application to Computer Science, LNCS 532, Springer-
  Verlag 1991, pp 641-659.  Available by ftp asTR AIB 90-16.
announcements: a list is forming; send mail to the contact (below)
bugs:  use the included "send-pr" program to send bug reports
requires: Modula-2, C
ports:  Sun-4, porting requires Modula-2
restrictions: GNU General Public License
author:  Lehrstuhl fuer Informatik III, RWTH Aachen, Ahornstr. 55
  D-52074 Aachen, Germany.
contact: (v5.x & PROGRES) Dr. Andy Sch"urr <andy@i3.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
  (v6.x) Norbert Kiesel <norbert@i3.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
how to get: (v5.x) ftp pub/unix/GRAS from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
  (PROGRES sun4) ftp pub/unix/PROGRES from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
  (PROGRES source) send mail to contact
  (references) ftp pub/reports/* from ftp.informatik.rwth-aachen.de
  (v6.x) contact Norbert Kiesel <norbert@i3.informatik.rwth-aachen.de>
updated: 1993/11/01

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- flat files ------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  EDB, the Emacs database
version: 1.17
interfaces: Emacs, Emacs Lisp
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: Emacs Lisp
limits:  same as for Emacs -- typically 8 or 32 MB
robustness: fairly high -- currently being used for mission-critical data
description: EDB provides simple database access in a "user-friendly" Emacs
  environment for flat files.  Extensions for linking records and
  relational-like operations exist, and further extensions are
  easy to make.
  EDB is documented by a 110-page manual, complete with indices
discussion: edb-list-request@theory.lcs.mit.edu
bugs:  mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu or edb-list@theory.lcs.mit.edu
requires: GNU Emacs 18, GNU Emacs 19, or Lucid Emacs
ports:  any computer that runs Emacs -- that is, almost any computer
restrictions: GNU Public License
author:  Michael Ernst <mernst@theory.lcs.mit.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/emacs/edb/edb.tar.Z from theory.lcs.mit.edu
updated: 1993/06/16

name:  Jinx
version: 2.1
interfaces: perl, shell
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  no limits
robustness: No bugs have ever been reported
description: Very easy to use, curses based flat file handler.
  In Perl, so no limits. Allows Join, Project, Sort etc.
  Representation in 2 readable unix files.  A documented
  Perl library makes it easy to add applications.
references: Online help and a 17 page tutorial.
requires: Perl, cterm (distributed with jinx)
ports:  any unix system with ordinary perl and curses
restrictions: Copyleft
author:  Henk Penning, Utrecht University
contact: Henk Penning <henkp@cs.ruu.nl>
how to get: ftp pub/PERL/jinx.shar.Z and pub/PERL/cterm.shar.Z 
  from ftp.cs.ruu.nl
updated: 1991/11/01

name:  rdb
version: 2.5j
interfaces: ?
access methods: ?
multiuser: ?
transactions: ?
distributed: ?
query language: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: RDB is mostly a set of Perl scripts working as filters, like
  "row" & "column"; a very nifty table formatting script is in
  "ptbl", which can do long field folding into multiple lines per
  row.
references: ?
discussion: ?
bugs:  ?
requires: perl
ports:  ?
author:  Walt Hobbs <hobbs@rand.org>
how to get: ftp pub/RDB-hobbs/RDB-2.5j.tar.Z from rand.org
updated: ?

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
----------------- dbm and other and raw access methods -------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  The Berkeley DB code
version: 1.79
interfaces: ndbm, hsearch
access methods: hash, b+tree, recno
multiuser: no 
transactions: no 
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  can handle large items
robustness: The db routines are used in some production code so they
  are likely to work reasonably well.
description: The Berkeley DB Code is a unification of several previous
  interfaces.  It also forms the basis of a unified interface
  to new access methods (b+tree, recno).
references: "A New Hashing Package for UNIX", Margo Seltzer, Ozan Yigit,
  Proceedings of the Winter USENIX Conference, Dallas, TX, 1991.
  Also available by ftp'ing pub/oz/hash.ps.Z from nexus.yorku.ca.
  "Document Processing in a Relational Database System, Michael
  Stonebraker," Heidi Stettner, Joseph Kalash, Antonin Guttman,
  Nadene Lynn, Memorandum No. UCB/ERL M82/32, May 1982.
  "LIBTP: Portable, Modular Transactions for UNIX," Margo
  Seltzer, Michael Olson, Proceedings 1992 Winter Usenix
  Conference, San Francisco, CA, January 1992.
reported bugs: does not align data in memory [fixed? --ed]
ports:  SunOS 4.1.2, Ultrix 4.2A, BSD 4.4, and most other Unix
author:  Margo Seltzer, Keith Bostic, Ozan Yigit
contact: Keith Bostic <bostic@cs.berkeley.edu>
how to get: ftp ucb/4bsd/db.tar.gz from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu
updated: 1994/06/22

name:  Btree Library
version: first public release
interfaces: raw C library
access methods: b-tree
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  values are limited to 4 bytes (long enough for a pointer!)
robustness: ?
description: Ths is a library that maintains a simple balanced btree index.
  Nothing more is provided than routines to insert, set, find
  (specific, next, and previous), and delete keys. Each key,
  however, has a spare long value that can be used to contain an
  offset to a data file. A library to handle fixed-length records
  based on these pointers should be trivial. (Can you say
  'dBASEIII'?) Another failing of this library is its total
  inability to cope with having several programs modifying
  indices at the same time. (it *CAN*, but I won't vouch for the
  result) The good solutions to that particular problem are OS
  dependent, unfortunately, and I am not a database guru anyhow.
ports:  Unix
author:  Marcus J. Ranum <mjr@umiacs.UMD.EDU>
how to get: get btree and bt-rio from comp.sources.misc volume 3
updated: 1988/06/02

name:  B+tree Library
version: first public release
interfaces: raw C library, dbm-like library
access methods: b+tree
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: This is the source code for a variable-length key variable page
  size b+tree library. Also included is source for a variety of
  test programs, a semi-useable record manager, and a
  dbm-lookalike library built on top of the record manager and
  b+tree. (dbm(3) will blow it away performance-wise, of
  course).
ports:  Pyramid, Sun, BSD4.3, Ultrix.  Does not work on Xenix
author:  Marcus J. Ranum <mjr@umiacs.UMD.EDU>
how to get: get b+tree_mgr from comp.sources.misc volume 10
updated: 1988/06/02

name:  dbc3
version: 1.0
interfaces: raw C library
access methods: ?
multiuser: no
transactions: ?
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: Dbclib provides a basic C interface to the database files
  used by dBase III.  It provides funtions to both read and 
  write them.  The author is German and so all the comments are 
  in German.  It's very small (95k).  [I'm not sure I have 
  the name correct --ed]
ports:  Unix, MS-DOS
author:  D.Schanz
how to get: uucp (host gold, login nuucp, no password, phone 08106-34593) 
  /home/public/unxhigh/unix1/dbclib.tgz; or
  ftp pub/pc/dos/programming/c/dbclib.tar.gz from ftp.uni-kl.de
updated: 1988/09/13

name:  dbz
version: "20 Feb 1993 Performance Release of C News"
interfaces: dbm-like, command-line access
access methods: hash
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  lines are limited to 1024 bytes unless the -l option is used
robustness: very robust within its domain
description: A dbm-like library maintained for use with C-news.
ports:  everything that runs C-news (lots)
author:  Jon Zeeff <zeeff@b-tech.ann-arbor.mi.us>, David Butler, Mark
  Moraes, Henry Spencer. Hashing function by Peter Honeyman.
contact: Henry Spencer <henry@zoo.toronto.edu>
how to get: included in the C-news distribution as ./dbz
updated: 1992/02/11

name:  gdbm
version: 1.7.3
interfaces: dbm, ndbm, gdbm
access methods: hash
multiuser: no, but does lock the entire file
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  can handle large items
robustness: [should be good --ed]
description: An ndbm work-alike from the Free Software Foundation
bugs:  gnu.utils.bug
author:  Philip A. Nelson <phil@wwu.edu>
how to get: ftp gdbm-*.tar.gz from any gnu archive
updated: 1994/05/18

name:  IDBM (ISAM Database Manager)
version: 0.2.0
interfaces: C library, curses query facility
access methods: ISAM
multiuser: no
transactions: no ?
distributed: no
query language: none
index size: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: beta release
description: IDBM is a fairly complete ISAM database system.  It includes
  a database library, a schema compiler, a database consistaency
  checker,  import and export routines, and curses programs to
  modify the database schema and the data in the database.
references: ?
announcements: ?
discussion: ?
bugs:  ?
requires: ?
ports:  Xenix, SysV, HP-UX, AIX, Amiga, SunOS, BSD, and Ultrix
restrictions: May not be used for commercial purposes.
author:  John F Haugh II <jfh@rpp386.cactus.org>
contact: ?
how to get: ftp pub/idbm/idbm-0.2.x/* from ftp.nevada.edu
updated: 1992/03/31

name:  sdbm
version: ?
interfaces: ndbm
access methods: hash
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  ?
robustness: [I know of no problems --ed]
description: ndbm work-alike hashed database library based
  on Per-Aake Larson's Dynamic Hashing algorithms.
author:  Ozan S. Yigit <oz@nexus.yorku.ca>
how to get: included in the X11R5 distribution as contrib/util/sdbm
updated: 1990/03/01

name:  tdbm
version: 1.1
interfaces: dbm-like
access methods: hashing
multiuser: In theory, but the required threads package is not currently
  distributed.
transactions: yes
distributed: yes
query language: none
limits:  Some minor ones.
robustness: Probably pretty reliable, but no hard data available.
description: Tdbm is a transaction processing database with a dbm-like
  interface.  It provides nested atomic transactions, volatile
  and persistent databases, and support for very large objects
  and distributed operation.
references: A paper appearing in the Summer '92 USENIX proceedings
  describes the design and implementation of tdbm and examines
  its performance.
discussion: Contact the author.
bugs:  Contact the author.
author:  Barry Brachman <brachman@cs.ubc.ca>
requires: Nothing special.
ports:  Sparc, MIPS, AIX.  Thought to be quite portable.
restrictions: Copyrighted with liberal use policy.
how to get: ftp pub/local/src/tdbm.tar.Z from ftp.cs.ubc.ca
updated: 1992/05/13

name:  Wb
version: 1a2
interfaces: scheme library
access method: b-tree
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  keys and data must be less that 256 bytes.  Total database
  must be < blocksize*2^32.
robustness: unknown.  New release by a good programmer.
description: WB is a disk based, sorted associative array C library.  These
  associative arrays consist of variable length (less that 256
  bytes) keys and values.  WB comes with an interface to the
  Scheme implementation SCM.
author:  Aubrey Jaffer <jaffer@martigny.ai.mit.edu>
requires: SCM and SLIB (also available from altdorf.ai.mit.edu)
ports:  ?
how to get: ftp archive/scm/wb1a2.tar.z from altdorf.ai.mit.edu
updated: 1993/11/05

name:  YACL (Yet Another Class Library)
version: ?
interfaces: C++ library
access methods: variable-length record management, b-trees.
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: none
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: YACL is a general-purpose C++ class library.  It happens
  to include some disk access methods.
ports:  MS Windows, Linux
restrictions: Commercial use prohibited.
author:  M. A. Sridhar <sridhar@usceast.cs.scarolina.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/sridhar/yacl.zip from ftp.cs.scarolina.edu
updated: 1994/05/25

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- full text -------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  glimpse 
version: 1.0
interfaces: command line
access methods: ?
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: logical conjunctions in command line searches
index size: 2-4%
limits:  does not work well with source text larger than 500MB
robustness: ?
description: Glimpse is a text pre-scanning and query tool. It builds
  a database of which files a word is used in.  When you want
  to search for a word, it knows ahead of time where it needs
  to look.  This allows it to give very quick results without
  storing a large inverted index.
references: U. Manber and S. Wu, "GLIMPSE: A Tool to Search Through Entire
  File Systems," Usenix Winter 1994 Technical Conference, San
  Francisco (January 1994), pp. 23-32.  Also, Technical Report
  #TR 93-34, Dept. of Computer Science, University of Arizona,
  October 1993 (a postscript file is available by anonymous ftp
  at cs.arizona.edu:reports/1993/TR93-34.ps).
  S. Wu and U. Manber, "Fast Text Searching Allowing Errors,"
  Communications of the ACM 35 (October 1992), pp. 83-91.
discussion: glimpse-request@cs.arizona.edu
ports:  portable, binaries provided for sun, mips, linux and alpha
author:  Udi Manber, Sun Wu, and Burra Gopal, Department of Computer
  Science, University of Arizona.
contact: glimpse@cs.arizona.edu
how to get: ftp glimpse/* from cs.arizona.edu
updated: 1994/04/27

name:  Liam Quin's text retrieval package (lq-text)
version: 1.13
interfaces: command line, curses
access methods: hash (dbm) plus clustered linked list
multiuser: read only
distributed: no, can be used over nfs if the systems are similar
query language: very limited command line
limits:  30-bit max document size, 31-bit distinct words in vocabulary,
  up to 2^24 documents (possibly more but I don't have enough
  disk to test anything like that!)
index size: >30%, <100% of input text
robustness: The README says that there are bugs.
description: lq-text is a text retrieval package.
  That means you can tell it about lots of files, and later you
  can ask it questions about them.  The questions have to be:
  "which files contain this word?" or "which files contain this
  phrase?", but this information turns out to be rather useful.
  Lqtext has been designed to be reasonably fast.  It uses an
  inverted index, which is simply a kind of database.  This tends
  to be smaller than the size of the data, but more than half as
  large. You still need to keep the original data.
  Lqtext uses dbm (berkeley db or sdbm) to store its indexes.
discussion: lq-text-beta-request@sq.com
bugs:  lq-text-beta@sq.com
ports:  most version of unix (except SCO)
restrictions: permission required for commercial use.
author:  Liam R. E. Quin <lee@sq.com>
how to get: ftp pub/lq-text*.tar.Z from relay.cs.toronto.edu
updated: 1993/12/10

name:  mg
version: ?
interfaces: ?
access methods: ?
multiuser: ?
transactions: ?
distributed: ?
query language: ?
index size: 6% of original data
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: mg compresses and indexes documents.  It can compress
  and index 2GB of text in 8 hours on an unknown system.
  mg acheives its small index size by dividing the input
  text into paragraphs and storing which paragram something
  was found in rather than its exact location.
references: "Managing gigabytes: compressing and indexing documents 
  and images", Witten, Moffat, and Bell, Van Nostrand Reinhold
  press.
requires: ?
ports:  ?
restrictions: ?
author:  Witten, Moffat, and Bell
contact: ?
how to get: ftp pub/mg from munnari.oz.au
updated: ? [someone want to fill in the blanks? --ed]

name:  qt (Query Text)
version: 0.1
interfaces: unix command line
access methods: ?
multiuser: no
distributed: no
query language: unix command line
index size: ?
limits:  ?
robustness: ?
description: Qt creates, maintains, and queries a full text database. The
  database file system is organized as an inverted index. The
  program is written as a single script, in Bourne Shell, and
  permits simple natural language queries.  
  [qt appears to be easier to use than lq-text and wais --ed]
bugs:  author
ports:  Unix, SysV.4, AIX, OSF/1, etc.
author:  John Conover <john@johncon.com>
how to get: comp.sources.unix volume 27
updated: 1993/10/18

name:  SMART
version: 11.0
interfaces: terminal, X (slightly oder version), and several 
  under development including Z39.50
access methods: inverted file search or sequential search
multiuser: yes, but last writer wins when there are update conflicts
distributed: In-house version, to be made public in fall
query language: Natural language
index size: approx 40% of original text.
limits:  Can only handle roughly 4 Gbytes of text in 
  non-distributed version.
robustness: Research tool; parts have been well-tested but others not.
description: SMART is an implementation of the vector-space model of
  information retrieval proposed by Salton back in the 60's.  The
  primary purpose of SMART is to provide a framework in which to
  conduct information retrieval research.  Standard versions of
  indexing, retrieval, and evaluation are provided.
  The system is designed to be used for small to medium scale
  collections, and offers reasonable speed and support for these
  actual applications.
  SMART analyses the collection of information and builds
  indexes.  It can then be used to build natural-language based
  information retrieval software.  It uses feedback from the
  user to tighten its search.
references: Z39.50 URL: <http://ds.internic.net/z3950/z3950.html>
restrictions: Research use only.
discussion: smart-people-request@cs.cornell.edu
ports:  Unix (works under Linux, does not work under Ultrix, ?)
contact: <chrisb@cs.cornell.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/smart/* from ftp.cs.cornell.edu
updated: 1992/07/21

name:  WAIS (Wide Area Information Server)
version: 8 b5.1
interfaces: the wais protocol (Z39.50)
access methods: inverted string index
multiuser: read only
distributed: client/server
query language: natural language, boolean, Relevance Feedback
index size: roughtly = data size
limits:  "none"
robustness: fairly high
description: There are three main components: WAISINDEX, WAISSERVER, and
  WAISSEARCH.
  WAISINDEX creates an inverted file index.  WAISINDEX includes
  filters for a number of common file formats.
  WAISSERVER listens for Z39.50 packets and tries to answer
  them.
  WAISSEARCH is the user agent that talks to WAISSERVERs.  There
  are several front ends: shell, X, and emacs.
announcements: wais-interest-request@think.com
discussion: wais-discussion-request@think.com
ports:  vax, sun-3, sun-4, NeXT, sysV
restriction: commercial version exists, contact info@wais.com
author:  Harry Morris <Morris@wais.com>, Brewster Kahle 
  <Brewster@wais.com>, Jonny Goldman <Jonathan@Think.COM>
how to get: ftp pub/freeware/unix-src/* from wais.com
updated: 1992/11/16

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- interfaces ------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  CB++
version: 0.1
interface from: C/C++
interface to: SunOS/Oracle (DOS+Windows/Oracle,Gupta, OS/2 Sybase)
description: CB++ provides a plain C/C++ interface (not embedded) for SQL
  database server access.  It was written in 1989 as a basis for
  storing C++ objects in a relational database. It is very
  simple to use and makes applications portable among different
  SQL databases. The library itself is relatively easy to port
  as the database vendor specific code is separated into a single
  C++ class which makes up only a limited part of the library.
  The author supports the current SunOS/Oracle version and
  server ports to other UNIX databases (DOS-, Windows-, OS/2-stuff
  is provided as it is and no longer supported)
requires: C++
ports:  Oracle 6 for SunOS 4.1.3,
  Gupta SQL Server for DOS/MS-Windows, OS/2 SQL Server
author:  Bernhard Strassl <bernhard@ani.univie.ac.at>
how to get: ftp contrib/CB++.0.1.tar.Z from ftp.x.org
updated: 1993/10/05

name:  ctreeperl
version: ?
interface from: perl
interface to: FairCom Ctree 
description: A perl interface for FairCom Ctree file indexing.
requires: Ctree
author:  John Conover <john@johncon.com>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/ctreeperl from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: 1994/04/07

name:  DSQL
version: 3.0
interface from: Unix, Macintosh, MS-DOS, MS-Windows, and Macintosh Hypercard
interface to: Unix/Informix, VMS/Oracle
description: DSQL is a simple client/server protocol to support remote
  access of SQL databases.  DSQL was designed in response to a
  perceived need at Genentech to provide graphical front-ends on
  Macintosh computers to Informix relational databases running on
  Unix servers.  DSQL version 3 is distributed with 2 server
  implementations and four client library implementations.  The
  API for the client libraries has been standardized, and the
  client code is divided into portable and architecture-specific
  portions.
requires: ?
ports:  Mac, PC, Unix
author:  The Genentech Scientific Computing Technology Development 
  group. Original authors: David Mischel, Terry Oberzeir, 
  Scooter Morris <scooter@tinman.gene.com>, Kathryn Woods.  
  Current team: Jim Fitzgerald, David Mischel, Scooter Morris, 
  Terry Oberzier, and Dan Lamb (VMS/Oracle).
contact: ?
how to get: ftp pub/dsql.3.tar.Z from cgl.ucsf.edu
updated: 1993/06/25

name:  Ingperl 
version: 2.0
interface from: perl
interface to: Ingres
descritpion: Ingperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Ingres databases.  Ingperl used to be called Sqlperl.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ?
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Ted Lemon <mellon@ncd.com>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/sqlperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: 1994/04/11

name:  Isqlperl
version: 1.1
interface from: perl
interface to: Informix
limits:  Maximum concurrently open cursors configured at build time.
descritpion: Isqlperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Informix databases.
requires: Perl 4.035 or higher, Informix ESQL/C (Online, SE, or Turbo)
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
restrictions: GNU Public License
author:  Bill Hails <bill@tardis.co.uk>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/isqlperl/isqlperl-1.1.shar.Z 
  from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: 1993/10/02

name:  Isqltcl ?
version: ?
interface from: tcl
interface to: Informix
description: Isqltcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that
  provides access to an Informix database server.  Isqltcl adds
  additional Tcl commands that login to an Informix Server, pass
  SQL code, read results, etc.
requires: ?
discussion: comp.lang.tcl
author:  Srinivas Kumar <skumar@netcom.com>
how to get: ftp tcl/extensions/isqltcl.tar.Z from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
updated: 1993/09/15

name:  Interperl
version: ?
interface from: perl
interface to: Interbase
descritpion: Interperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs 
  to access Interbase databases.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ?
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Buzz Moschetti <buzz@bear.com>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/interperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: ?

name:  Onyx
version: 2.28
interface from: Onyx 4gl, (emacs and smalltalk planned)
interface to: Ingres89, Informix, GAWK, Shql, Yard (Postgres, OBST planned)
  The informix port is slow and no longer being extended
  because the author feels their support is inadiquat.e
interfaces: Onyx uses a OO-Parser to access different engines
  The transaction manager can be accessed by any aplication
  which is able to use pipes or TCP/sockets.
multiuser: Depends on the used engine.
transactions: Yes, but no rollback, all transactions are atomic as
  a block, replication of transactions is planned for
  one of the next releases.
distributed: Yes its possible to connect to any mentioned database
  anywhere in the net.  Replication is planned.
query language: SQL + Onyx 4gl (based on Model-View-Controller idea)
limits:  Current version uses memory to store selected data.
robustness: Onyx is experimental, but useable for clients. The author is
  supporting himself by writing applications written in Onyx 4GL.
description: Onyx is a 4gl based on the idea of model view controller. Onyx
  4gl connects to a transaction manager based on a OO-Parser
  generator via a socket.  While the design goal of the protocol
  was to keep it as simple as posible, its a good starting point
  of writing vendor independent database applications.
status:  experimental; actively developed and supported.
announcements: comp.os.linux.announce
bugs:  Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de>
requires: BSD like system, GNU C++, a database engine (minimum GNU-AWK)
ports:  Tested on Linux and SunOs.
restrictions: GNU Public Licence
author:  Michael Koehne <kraehe@bakunin.north.de>
how to get: ftp incoming/onyx/? from ftp.germany.eu.net (every versions)
  ftp pub/comp/i386/Linux/Local.EUnet/Applications/Database 
  from ftp.germany.eu.net (stable versions)
updated: 1994/03/19

name:  Oraperl
version: ?
interface from: perl
interface to: Oracle
descritpion: Oraperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Oracle databases.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, Oracle Pro*C
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Kevin Stock 
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/oraperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: ?

name:  Oratcl
version: 2.11
interface from: TCL
interface to: Oracle
description: Oratcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that
  provides access to a Oracle Database server.  Oratcl adds
  additional Tcl commands that login to an Oracle Server, pass
  SQL code, read results, etc.  Oratcl was inspired by similar
  tools written for Perl (sybperl, oraperl) but was written from
  scratch instead of borrowing on the work of either Perl
  extension.
requires: Tcl 6.7, Tk 3.2, Oracle OCI libraries 1.5, 
  Oracle SQL Server Version 6 or Version 7
discussion: comp.lang.tcl
author:  Tom Poindexter <tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/tcl/extensions/oratcl-* from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
updated: 1994/04/13

name:  pgperl
version: ?
interface from: perl
interface to: Postgres
descritpion: pgperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Postgres databases.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ?
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Igor Metz <metz@iam.unibe.ch>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/pgperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: ?

name:  SIOD (Scheme In One Defun/Day)
version: 3.0
interface from: C, C++, Scheme
interface to: Oracle, Digital RDB, flat ascii, flat binary.
access methods: flat files contain symbolic expression such as hash tables.
multiuser: yes with commercial DB, no with flat files.
transactions: yes with commercial DB, no with flat files.
distributed: yes with commercial DB, no with flat files.
query language: SQL, any SCHEME program.
limits:  None.
robustness: ?
description: This is a scheme interpreter with built-in procedures using
  the Oracle Call Interface (OCI) and DIGITAL RDB SQL Services.
  You can use it merely as a flexible database loader/unloader
  with fast binary flat-file data save/restore. Or you can
  use it to apply the classic "Symbolic Manipulation" or
  "Artificial Intelligence" techniques on your data sets.
  The main-program can be oriented towards batch, character-cell
  terminal, or Window/GUI.
references: "Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs" MIT Press.
announcements: comp.lang.scheme, comp.databases.rdb, comp.databases.oracle
bugs:  Contact the author.
requires: C compiler, your favorite commercial DB.
ports:  VMS, WINDOWS NT, UNIX, OS/2, MACINTOSH. 
author:  George Carrette <gjc@mitech.com>
how to get: ftp pub/gjc/siod* from ftp.std.com.
updated: 1994/05/01

name:  Sybperl
version: 1.011
interface from: perl
interface to: Sybase
descritpion: Sybperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Sybase databases.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ?
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Michael Peppler <mpeppler@itf.ch>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/sybperl/sybperl-1.009.* from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: 1994/05/15

name:  Sybtcl
version: 2.11
interface from: TCL
interface to: Sybase
description: Sybtcl is an extension to Tool Command Language (Tcl) that
  provides access to a Sybase Database server.  Sybtcl adds
  additional Tcl commands that login to a SQL Server, pass SQL
  code, read results, etc.  Sybtcl was inspired by similar tools
  written for Perl (sybperl, oraperl) but was written from
  scratch instead of borrowing on the work of either Perl
  extension.
requires: Sybase Open Client (DB-Library), Sybase SQL Server
discussion: comp.lang.tcl
author:  Tom Poindexter <tpoindex@nyx.cs.du.edu>
how to get: ftp tcl/extensions/sybtcl-* from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
updated: 1994/04/13

name:  tclgdbm
version: 1.0
interface from: TCL
interface to: gdbm
description: none provided
discussion: comp.lang.tcl
author:  Tuan Doan <tdoan@bnr.ca>
how to get: ftp pub/tcl/extensions/tclgdbm1.0* from harbor.ecn.purdue.edu
updated: 1994/02/08

name:  tcl+gdbm
version: 0.1
interface from: TCL
interface to: gdbm
description: none provided
discussion: comp.lang.tcl
author:  Christian Lindig <lindig@ips.cs.tu-bs.de>
how to get: ftp pub/local/sw/tcl+gdbm-0.1.tar.gz from ftp.ips.cs.tu-bs.de
updated: 1994/05/04

name:  Uniperl
version: ?
interface from: perl
interface to: Unify 5.0
descritpion: Uniperl is a set of user subroutines to enable Perl programs to
  access Unify databases.
requires: Perl 3.027 or higher, ?
discussion: perldb-interest-REQUEST@vix.com
author:  Rick Wargo <rickers@coe.drexel.edu>
how to get: ftp pub/perl/db/uniperl/? from ftp.demon.co.uk
updated: ?

name:  Willow 
version: 2.2
interface from: user
interface to: WWW/Mosaic, Z39.50, ZDist (formerly free-WAIS) from CNIDR
description: Willow (Washington Information Looker-upper Layered Over
  Windows) is a general purpose information retrieval tool. It
  provides a single, easy-to-use graphical user interface (X
  Windows / Motif) to any number of text-based bibliographic
  databases.
references: http://www.cac.washington.edu/willow/home.html
ports:  DEC/Ultrix, Solaris, SunOS, RS6000/AIX.
contact: willow@cac.washington.edu
how to get: ftp willow/* from ftp.cac.washington.edu
updated: 1994/06/30

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------- other -----------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

name:  _lex & yacc_ by Levine, Mason & Brown published by O'Reilly
version: ?
parts:  grammar
description: In _lex & yacc_, by Levine, Mason & Brown an SQL parser
  is included as an example grammar
author:  Levine, Mason & Brown
how to get: buy the book, or ftp published/oreilly/nutshell/lexyacc/? 
  from ftp.uu.net.
updated: ?

name:  examples from: "Information Retrieval, Data Structures 
  & Algorithms," William B. Frakes, Ricardo Baeza-Yates, 
  Editors, Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, 
  New Jersey 07632, 1992, ISBN 0-13-463837-9.
version: ?
descriptions: example code from the book "Information Retrieval, Data 
  Structures & Algorithms"
how to get: ftp pub/reuse/ircode.tar.Z from ftp.vt.edu
author:  [resumably William B. Frakes, Ricardo Baeza-Yates]
updated: ?

name:  "A Guide to the SQL standard"
version: ?
parts:  BNF SQL grammer
description: A BNF grammer for SQL is included in the book.
how to get: buy the book: "A Guide to the SQL standard" by Hugh Darwen
  and C.J. Date.
updated: ?

name:  MultiCal
version: 1.0
interfaces: ?
access methods: ?
multiuser: no
transactions: no
distributed: no
query language: enhanced SQL2 
index size: ?
limits:  ?
description: MultiCal is both a novel approach to supporting multiple
  calendars and internationalization of time constants and a
  query processor prototype that demonstrates this approach.
  MultiCal consists of about 48K source lines of C code; the
  query processor prototype consists of about 63K source lines of
  code.  The documentation consists of fifteen documents,
  comprising some 300 pages of material.
  MultiCal consists of an approach to providing limited
  extensibility for support of multiple calendars and languages
  for temporal support within a database management system
  (DBMS). We have augmented the Structured Query Language (SQL),
  specifically, SQL2, with time values, i.e., temporal
  constants.  Our approach is notable in that we allow many
  different calendars to be used in the database management
  system, and we incorporate only calendar-independent constructs
  into the language. We introduce three new temporal data types.
  New language features are defined for temporal built-in
  functions, special time values, arithmetic expressions
  involving time, temporal predicates, and aggregate functions
  over time. Ten languages are supported.
  To illustrate how an existing DBMS could be augmented to
  support multiple calendars, we provide a prototype DBMS that
  supports the proposed extensions. This prototype consists of
  query analysis and execution components. It eschews traditional
  functionality such as concurrency control and disk access
  methods, as these aspects are not relevant to timestamp
  management.
ports:  Sun4
contact: <multical@cs.arizona.edu> or Rick Snodgrass <rts@CS.Arizona.EDU>
ho"T<Path: planet!isdnlin.mtsu.edu!darwin.sura.net!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!news.umbc.edu!haven.umd.edu!ames!sgiblab!idiom.berkeley.ca.us!idiom.berkeley.ca.us!not-for-mail
From: muir@idiom.com (David Muir Sharnoff)
Newsgroups: comp.databases,comp.databases.object,comp.sources.d
comp.os.linux.misc,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: Catalog of free database systems
Message-ID: <freedb-1.10@idiom.com>
Date: 6 Jul 1994 01:05:32 -0700
Expires: Fri, 30 Sep 1994 23:59:00 GMT
Sender: muir@idiom.berkeley.ca.us
Reply-To: free-databases@id