<html><head><title>Review of Powerbase</title></head>
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<center><h3>Review of Powerbase</h3></center>
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  Powerbase is, quite simply, the best database on the Acorn platform. I cannot even begin to list its many features and fuctions here (the more prominent being report generation, mail merge with Impression via the Impulse protocol, validation tables, import/export of CSV files, encorporation of external 'fields' - sprites, text blocks etc. into databases); suffice to say that if you need a database for any reason whatsoever, Powerbase will fulfill that need.
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  An added bonus is the fact that it's shareware, and, with a registration fee of 10, is phenomenally cheap. The authors supply the full product, and the only differences between distribution and registered versions is that your name appears in the Banner window and in the Program Info box (iconbar menu). This is what shareware should be like, a fact forgotten by many would-be authors who either turn out (David Holden's definitions) Crippleware - not the full program, nor (in some cases) anything near it - or Nagware - a banner pops up every five seconds asking why you haven't registered. This sort of stupid programming drives people away from shareware, and very rarely collects a registration fee.
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  I can personally recommend Powerbase, from long use of the system, and the fact that I have included it at the core of the <a href="../Promotion/EIS-Disc">Earth in Space</a> package. It does (at least on my machine) seem to sometimes encounter problems when creating databases, but, once created, the databases are rock solid and work all the time.
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Authors: Derek and Stephen Haslam<br>
Status: Shareware (reg. 10)<br>
Availability: Any good PD library will make sure it has the latest version and the Datafile's <a href="../Commercial/PDCD5">PD-CD 5</a>.<br>
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