from the November 1987 issue of PC Tech Journal magazine
An inside look reveals how one company rapidly converted a complex data manager from DOS to the OS/2 environment.
by Steven Armbrust
When Microrim, Inc., became a beta site for IBM’s new Operating System/2 (OS/2) in late 1986, Microrim chairman and founder Wayne Erickson knew immediately what he and his staff had to do. Not only did they have to convert R:BASE System V, Microrim’s largest and most complex database manager, to run under OS/2, but the job had to be done in time to demonstrate a working product when IBM officially announced OS/2. At the time, no one knew how soon the announcement would occur (it came just six months later).
Microrim—located in the same Redmond, Washington, neighborhood as OS/2’s developer, Microsoft—is a forerunner in converting to OS/2. The company internally committed to the OS/2 conversion of R:BASE System V in late 1986 and completed it in time to demoastrate the product at IBM’s formal announcement of OS/2 on April 2 of this year in Miami.
“We knew the job would be big, because our program is big,” Erickson said. “But with all the enhancements we wanted to make to our product, and because of the endorsements of IBM and Microsoft, we felt we couldn’t ignore OS/2.”
Microrim is counting on OS/2 to be a big boon in the constant battles die company must wage with competitors, most notably Ashton-Tate of dBASE fame, to add new features and otherwise improve its products. For R:BASE System V, which already strains at the 640KB memory bounds that are available under DOS, OS/2’s 16MB of memory will open the door to new features. It will also improve system performance by eliminating the need for cumbersome overlays used to squeeze numerous program elements into the overflowing 640KB memory bag. As it is now, heavy use of overlays as required by R:BASE uiider DOS diminishes the product’s performance even on an AT-class computer.
Microrim approached the OS/2 conversion systematically and found it relatively uncomplicated, said company managers, largely because R:Base System V (like all Microrim products) is modularly designed, thus nullifying the need for complex and interconnecting adjustments during conversions. The converted R:BASE System V is capable of running under OS/2 and using OS/2’s expanded memory and some multitasking capabilities with other OS/2 applications; however, it does not yet fully tap all OS/2 features, such as multithreading and the operational doors that capability can open.
The converted R:Base System V is not yet on the market and prices are unavailable. Microrim plans to release the product when IBM releases OS/2; meanwhile. Microrim engineers are working to enhance it with features arising out of capabilities specific to OS/2. According to Microrim, R:Base System V will remain available in DOS for users who do not want to convert their operations to OS/2.
PLANNING THE CONVERSION
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