Approach Database and PSM

[Dean L. Reyburn, RPT]

Greg Newell <gnewell@EN.COM> writes
>  I'm encouraged that this is indeed a viable alternative to Piano
>Service Manager. I have worried that PSM is not Y2K compliant

PSM will work beyond the year 2000 with little or no problem, I'm
surprised you didn't simply email me with this question. There are a
couple minor features which need updating but the program will still
run fine. These are on my todo list for February. A completely Y2K
compliant version will be available soon. I have the original source
code so the changes are not difficult.

PSM's databases store dates in a Y2K compatible way, with the year
stored in 4 bytes. It stores years as 1999 or 2000 _not_ as 99 or 00.
This is true for versions 5.1 or later which date back to about 1993.

>and also I'm really tired of that silly software dongle that
>must be on the parallel port to make the software active. 

I do understand your frustration with this problem. We recently released
a version which does not require a dongle at all. The dongle was becoming
a support problem on some new hardware, and as you noted, very
inconvenient on laptops.

>I refuse to have that on my laptop in the field and also I refuse to
>pay for another one so that I can leave my system active at home for
>my wife. 

The no-dongle version solves the laptop problem.

Are you saying you want to run the program on two machines at the same
time while only having purchased a single copy? If so, this the precise
reason why dongles are used.

I'm sure you realize that to run almost any commercial program on two
computers at once (without purchasing two copies) is illegal and
unethical.

>That program was never really what I needed in the first place and ,I
>believe, grossly overpriced. 

I'm sorry PSM didn't suit your needs as well as you hoped. I worked 
very hard on it to make it as widely useful as possible. It's still used
by quite a few technicians and continues to sell well. It runs fine on
DOS, Win 3.1, Windows 9x or Macintosh/RealPC. A free demo version is
available at our web site. Its the only program of its kind I know of
with 800 number support.

While you are certainly entitled to your opinion, I would take issue with
your assertion that it was overpriced. Frankly, for the amount of time I
put into the project and the number of copies I sold I would have been
better off to just tune pianos. The market is very small in our field,
necessitating that complex specialized software be priced higher than
say a program like Microsoft Word which will sell tens of millions of
copies.

I have close to 1000 hours of programming and beta testing in the program.
At least several hundred hours have been spent by Marty and I over the
years helping "newbie" computer users who simply didn't have a clue what
they were doing use PSM or their computer. The amount of support time
required by a program of this type is enormous.

I'm not really complaining, and not sorry I wrote PSM. The programming
expertise I gained with PSM and other programs gave me the skills to
write RCT, which is very successful.

>Now the only reason I won't have what I need is if I didn't create it
>correctly. 
>	I have already opened all the database files in both Approach and in
>FileMaker Pro so I know it's possible. I guess the step now is to create
>a form to import all the info into. PSM does split up the info into more
>than one database as you so intelligently suggest. I did not find a file
>that showed the main screen or form which opens 3 databases initially.
>They are customer, piano, and schedule (this last one alternates with
>the invoice database). These are all tiled on screen at the same time one
>above the other. This is the view I wish to create for my wife ( at
>least initially). I will sit through the tutorials but that is a little
>like asking directions when we're lost isn't it? :>) 

I hope you are successful in this. Filemaker Pro is a great program. I
did not know that it could even read dBase 3+ or Clipper (PSM) files. I 
would be very interested in helping you in this project. I'd love to
see a set of Filemaker Pro templates which could be used in Windows.

You may even rediscover why I've had to charge what I did for PSM. It
takes lots of time and expertise to set up the user interface,the screens
and relationships.

I've thought many times of writing a Windows 9x and Macintosh version of
PSM but the market size for that niche product didn't make it worth while
in the last few years and it doesn't seem to me that it is worth it now
either. I'm going to reevaluate this later this year. If anyone has 
comments on this feel free to email me privately. I would have to almost
completely rewrite the program.

Maybe programs such as Filemaker Pro will eventually make specialized
database programs such as PSM obsolete. That would be fine with me!
However there are large numbers of users who are simply not as computer
savvy as you and can't set this up.

-Dean

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 Dean L. Reyburn, RPT      RPS, Inc.          email:  dean@reyburn.com
 2695 Indian Lakes Road                      web page: www.reyburn.com
 Cedar Springs, Michigan, 49319 USA
 1-888-SOFT-440 (or 616-696-1002)                    Fax: 616-696-8121