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The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
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Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

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Alpha5 Purchase

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    Alpha5 Purchase

    I used Alpha4 years ago and remember that the learning curve was not that steep. I am now considering purchasing the runtime version of Alpha5 for developing some company applications.
    Before I shell out that amount of cash for a product I would like to know how it performs in the client/server environment. In particular, what kind of user load can the database stand. I know MSAccess gets very offended when you start piling more than 20 users on it at a time. Also, are there any client licensing issues to contend with?

    Thanks

    #2
    RE: Alpha5 Purchase

    JW,

    I can respond to some of the questions you pose.

    The runtime version cannot be used to develop an application. It's intended for deployment, and permits users to run applications developed with the full version. This means that you will need to purchase at lease one full version, plus the runtime version. The runtime version can be purchased in multiple sets, or with an unlimited license, I believe.

    Neither version 4 (currently shipping) nor version 5 (now in development) of Alpha Five utilize the client-server model. They use a file-sharing strategy in much the same way as does Alpha Four. In the typical deployment, the data would reside on a single dedicated machine (server) in your network. The runtime version would be installed on each workstation and run locally, pulling data from, and saving data to, the server.

    Performance over most local area networks is greatly enhanced by network optimization, which is a technique by which Alpha Five arranges to store database dictionaries, field rules, form and report layout definitions... in fact virtually all of the application except for the raw data, itself, on each workstation. Instead of having to pull the graphical components down from the server (through the narrow pipe which is your network cable) these are then available locally. This permits Alpha Five to simply pull the data down from the server, and to send only data back after processing, and the result is brisk performance in most cases.

    How many workstations do you intend to support? Are they presently using Alpha Four successfully? Will they be upgraded to support large Windows applications, and will they be connected using 100mb network interface cards and cabling? As you might expect, Windows applications require more horsepower to run successfully and Alpha Five is no exception.

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      #3
      RE: Alpha5 Purchase

      Tom,
      Thanks for the quick reply and thorough answer. I suppose that the file-sharing scenario will work well for what I need to do. There will be only approximately 25 users on the system at any given time. The application will be an order and inventory system. I am glad you cleared up the fuzziness of what is included in the product purchase and pricing. I was under the impression that the unlimited runtime would include the application for development...especially at the price.
      Anyway, do you have any idea as to what to expect price wise on the new version 5. So many times I have purchased the latest and greatest only to have a newer release roll out after purchasing.

      thanks
      jeff

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        #4
        RE: Alpha5 Purchase

        Pricing for version 5 has not yet been announced, to the best of my knowledge.

        -- tom

        Comment


          #5
          RE: Alpha5 Purchase

          And Alpha tells us that all purchases for A5V4.5 will be credited against the purchase price of A5V5. So you won't lose the money spent for V5.

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