Documentation systems

I take your point about databases being black holes as regards time and
effort; but aren't you presenting a slightly overbleak picture.  With no
training in the field and no more knowledge than has been absolutely
necessary for me to obtain, I maintain in dBASE IV an address list with
33 character, date, logical, and numeric fields and about 8000 records
which I can search almost anywhere in on almost anything in a matter of
seconds.  Example: somewhere in the file was the name of a caterer I
sometimes use, and needed the name of.  I couldn't remember her name to
save myself, but remembered it had a hyphen in it.  I filtered to give
me only names with MS honorific, NY home or work state, and a hyphen
somewhere in the lastname field.  I got six names in 30 seconds, among
which was the one I wanted.  Crude but effective.

Aren't you be TOO knowledgeable and more than a bit too
avuncular in steering folks clear of databases the way you just did?

Just a thought.

-tb

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                  Conservation DistList Instance 5:33
                Distributed: Saturday, December 14, 1991
                        Message Id: cdl-5-33-003
                                  ***