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From: aldridge@netcom.com (Jacquelin Aldridge)
Subject: Problems with Micropatent CD-ROM
Message-ID: <aldridgeCn7BEn.Kq4@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
References: <2m253u$dbr@agate.berkeley.edu>
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 1994 03:37:34 GMT
Lines: 52



Don't know what to do about this, could use some advice.


We have two serious problems with the software on the network. The first is
that it tries to save files to an odd area on the Novell server directories
and it is very difficult to change the saving directory/file to any other
place. It has no memory of where it is expect to save the files to from
disk to disk. And there is no append function so that for every 
query that results in a set one has to assign a new file name. To change
the filename requires twenty or so keystrokes the first time and several
keystrokes for each one thereafter. It's not simply that one can write in a
command like save to"c:\user\file1.ref". One has to go through a series of
directory trees, backtrack to the root directories, choose a new root
directory, track to the next directory, choose it, track to the next.
On that network it meant I had to backtrack out of
f:\application designator group\application group 2\application
group3\file.nam and then track forward through c:\storage group\file.nam.
Users can't be allowed to save to the network area because it is the same
area where the software for all the other CD-ROM databases are stored. It
is impossible to select another default file, the software doesn't
allow it. 

This means for one question, through the twenty year period, six files are
generated. For the several queries that are neccessary to find most of the
possibly relavent abstracts dozens of files are generated. The Micropatent
solution for this is that we should create a "summing up" command in dos
and use it to create a file similar to one we might have had with one
action using a more sophisticated system. And this means that all sense of
order is lost. The salesman and tech support person said that this 
fault is part of Dataware's cd-rom search system and that they
can't create a program to deal with this. 

The second problem is that one has to go through the entire process of
choosing a new disk to search for every few years. There seems to be no way
to link the disks to query them all at once. I understand that even on a
standalone workstation one has to go through the same laborious processes.

The twenty year section cost several thousand dollars and the one year
subscription cost another 1+. Essentially it is not going to be upgradable
and will be out of date at the end of the year. It's unlikely that I'll be
able to integrate it with any other brand, even assuming that we get it
working to any degree. 


Any suggestions? 


Jackie Aldridge