DataPerfect on 200LX

[Dave Britten]

I'm playing around with DataPerfect a bit (mostly under DOSBox initially, until I get comfortable with it), and was curious if anybody else has experience using it on the 200LX, or other HP palmtops. I've got some database needs that will outgrow the HP database soon - in terms of functionality, not record count - and DP appears to be a popular alternative.

The most glaring issue I see running it on my 200LX is that DP seems to make use of some colors that look fairly awful on the greyscale screen. Is there a way to force DP to run in strictly monochrome text mode? Or is there some way to configure the HP to act like a monochrome display adapter? (Maybe with the MODE command?)

Also in the realm of screen usage, DP takes up the top third of the screen with help and prompts. Any way to get that back? Should I just run in zoomed mode and design panels to fit that portion of the screen?

How does DP perform with databases stored on a CF card? I'm not familiar with how chatty its disk I/O is. Is it like MS Access in that it only writes a record when you explicitly save or navigate to a different record?

[striegel]

(12-03-2016 03:11 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  ...Or is there some way to configure the HP to act like a monochrome display adapter? (Maybe with the MODE command?)
...

If you use "MODE MONO", you'll lose screen resolution. The MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter) defaults to 40 characters per line. So I'd recommend trying "MODE BW80".

This advice only works if the program doesn't automatically switch out of text mode into graphics mode on its own.
Alan

[Dave Britten]

(12-03-2016 03:30 PM)striegel Wrote:  

(12-03-2016 03:11 PM)Dave Britten Wrote:  ...Or is there some way to configure the HP to act like a monochrome display adapter? (Maybe with the MODE command?)
...

If you use "MODE MONO", you'll lose screen resolution. The MDA (Monochrome Display Adapter) defaults to 40 characters per line. So I'd recommend trying "MODE BW80".

This advice only works if the program doesn't automatically switch out of text mode into graphics mode on its own.
Alan

MODE MONO seems to be doing what I want, actually. At first, it switched to zoomed/low-res mode, but FN-Space switched back to 85x20. After that, DP displays in strictly black and white. If I use MODE BW80, it will still try to display in greyscales, and not particularly readable ones at that.

I think that solves the color issue, in any case. I'll just have to make a batch file to set MONO before launching DP. Thanks.

[Dave Britten]

Alright, played around with it some more last night, and found two snags:

1. Having a heck of a time figuring out how to create/use "data links" (i.e. foreign keys). Couldn't really make sense of it after spending an hour or so with the 2.3 manual, and "Mastering DataPerfect".

2. Seems like it's a big pain in the ass to modify database/panel structure if there's already data in it. I'll have to see if it's simple to get around this with dpimp/dpexp or something.

Not quite ready to give up on this yet, as it seems like DP is the best balance of relational functionality, and simplicity vs. other databases I've checked out on WinWorldPC. I do wish it had checkboxes and radio buttons like the HP Database, though. You probably have to do A1 fields for "checkboxes", and data-linked fields in lieu of radio buttons and categories.

Any additional tips/info welcome.