After the sale of altSQLite, I was asked to create a column for the Runtime Revolution newsletter. After writing it, it was severely editted. No explanation was given, and no attempt to resolve the edits were made. Since I spent a lot of time writing it, I thought I'd post it here for anyone to see.

Make your own FileMaker Killer-App
by Chipp Walters, Altuit, Inc.

Back in the day, I actually used Macs- and loved it. And, one of my all time favorite programs was FileMaker. With FileMaker anyone could easily build databases-- heck, my 76 year old Dad still uses FileMaker to track all sorts of information. Geez, all the things one could do with FileMaker. Still can- I suppose.

Then came HyperCard which allowed for even more free form databases and even added in the ability to create custom interfaces.

HyperCard was soon supplanted (in my toolbox) with SuperCard and it's color interfaces and ability to create standalones. Later on, many of us moved to MetaCard and Revolution-- the best Xtalk of all. I couldn't believe the robustness of the Revolution engine. It hardly ever crashed, and *NEVER* corrupted a stack. Unheard of. Great stuff for sure.

One of the big reasons for the robustness of the Rev engine had to do with the fact it kept all of the program's 'stacks' in memory. This made for a very fast application, though limited by RAM as well. Both HyperCard and SuperCard spooled data from disk, thus creating a slower runtime experience, not to mention the opportunity for stack corruption and crashes. But, sometimes, especially for databases, it is good to store data, especially large amounts of data, on the disk, and access only what you need. Currently, that's a bit hard for Rev to do.

Perhaps some of you remember Scott Raney, the father of the MetaCard engine-- which became Revolution. For years he had working for him a very bright young fellow named Tuviah. I got to know Tuviah well in the early days of Rev, as he helped construct the first version of altBrowser. One day Tuviah mentioned to me in a chat session he had this idea for a killer app. He went on to explain how all Rev needed was a strong database engine with small footprint, and a FileMaker-like product could be created. I was interested. He had visions of combining Rev with a tried and tested Open Source database engine called SQLite to create a real competitor to FileMaker.

RealBasic figured all this out years ago and their SQLite offering is now an integral part of their product strategy. I think with some smart additions, SQLite can also play a similar role for Rev. Of course I may be biased, as I ended up purchasing some of the early SQLite work from Tuviah, and let Chris work his magic to bring it to all three platforms (Mac,PC and Linux), then released it to the Rev community as altSQLite.

While I can't say it's possible, the recent acquisition of altSQLite by Runtime Revolution from Altuit has the business opportunity for creating such a FileMaker contender. The simple install (the database connector IS the database engine), extreme small footprint (10% or less the size of Valentina and other database engine/driver combos), combined with speed and overall ease-of-use makes for a compelling story. Adding to it the substantial number of free SQLite tools, including configuration, management, viewers and world-class support, points to a potentially very successful combination.

This isn't to say altSQLite doesn't have limitations. It's a very solid and tested zero configuration single-user SQL database engine. It works great for many single-user client applications. But, you really can't build an n-tier web app with it (though RB tries with some success). As an embedded database engine, it is quite powerful, and supports databases up to 2 terabytes (241 bytes) in size! You can learn more about SQLite at it's homepage: http://www.sqlite.org

Oh and one other thing about altSQLite, it has ZERO user-license cost, unlike Filemaker, Valentina and MySQL.

This is especially noteworthy as it nicely bridges the gap between Rev stacks as 'database' which reside entirely in memory, and more heavy hitter products like Valentina and MySQL, which require multiple files, large installers, and a bit of setup.

SQLite, just like the other database offerings, stores data on the disk, so the memory footprint doesn't become too large-- as it can get if you use Revolution stacks only as a database. Plus, it uses the standard SQL language and Rev's own connector architecture, which means if you create in altSQLite, you can later port to a multi-user web database system like MySQL.

That said, I have no doubt Valentina, MySQL and the other revDB supported databases are great in their own right, and have a different set of advantages to Rev users. It's just that IMO, there's a REAL opportunity for Rev to evolve their product using a license free disk-based SQL database engine.

If you're interested, you can go to www.altuit.com/webs/altuit2/altSQLiteCover/default.htm for a free demo of altSQLite. Get there before Dec 1, because at that time it will set sail to Scotland to be incorporated into a future version of Rev sometime hopefully in Q1 2007. If you need to use it before then, consider purchasing it from Altuit before Dec 1.

So, now any personal database you can think of, you can build, using altSQLite and Rev.

Next newsletter, we'll focus on some cool things you can do with altBrowser.