Why HomeBASE

A layman's guide to the merits of HomeBASE for Windows

Why HomeBASE? Because you demand the best and success is your primary goal!

HomeBASE for Windows™ is the most efficient, professional and economical solution in the marketplace today!

You'll find that no other product or company in the industry can make your application implementation easier. Imagine spending less time on design, programming, implementation, training and maintenance. Simply stated, HomeBASE will make you and your team more productive and decrease the overall implementation effort!

At Our® HomeBASE, our team has provided practical and successful solutions for companies and professionals seeking answers to some important complex questions like:

• How can we decrease the amount of time we spend on software development?
• Can we reduce the time spent on maintaining and enhancing applications?
• Can we access all of the data we want, whenever we want it?
• Will we be able to run faster applications and save precious time?
• Is there an application development package that is easy to learn and use... Simple, yet powerful?
• Who is John De Lorenzo®, and what is his track record?

Thoughtful questions like these have led our clients to discover the industry's ultimate "secret weapon." So, what are you waiting for?

Join the thousands of devoted users who have found HomeBASE for Windows™. You too will be surprised and pleased with the results you achieve.

HomeBASE Slashes Implementation Effort

Our application shells allow you to begin using and evaluating your needs. If no changes are required, you've already begun. If changes or additions are needed, we're "Johnny on the spot"!

HomeBASE Accesses Data Anywhere

HomeBASE for DOS and Windows allow users on a multiplatform access the data regardless of the operating system platform.

HomeBASE Applications Are Fast

Consider Microsoft Access, a database manager. You program Access by providing a script-a role to play. Then, Access "acts out" your application for you. That's why Access is so huge. It is full of all the "parts" it must play to perform every application imaginable. Access is also as slow as a snail because it must "interpret" scripts from its language into machine language while your application is running.

HomeBASE doesn't work that way. The application generator creates source code written in the 4GL language. The language has been carefully designed to be understandable to programmers-it can't be executed by a computer. Turning source code into a form that a computer can understand is called "compiling." The optimizing compiler reads source code and writes extremely efficient machine language. This process occurs during the development cycle. Our applications run about as fast as a computer can go. For the record, Delphi compiles applications like ours. Visual Basic interprets applications like Access. PowerBuilder is partially compiled and runs a little faster than Visual Basic.

HomeBASE Applications Are Efficient

HomeBASE applications are also efficient. A typical HomeBASE database application that prints a report produces an executable file of about 800K. Because the database drivers and print engine are included in the .EXE file, most HomeBASE applications, along with test data and documentation, can be deployed on a single floppy disk with a single installation step.

Not so with Delphi, Visual Basic, and PowerBuilder applications. They require multiple installation steps, much more disk storage, and a lot more memory. Delphi uses the Borland Database Engine (BDE) to access databases and the ReportSmith run-time to print reports. Each requires a separate installation. Similarly, Visual Basic uses the Jet database engine and Crystal Reports run-time. PowerBuilder applications are self-contained but require the services of a huge set of dynamic link library (DLL) files. The resulting footprint of a Delphi, Visual Basic, or PowerBuilder application is well over 8 megabytes.

In other words, Delphi, Visual Basic, and PowerBuilder applications are typically eight to ten times larger than HomeBASE applications. How can this be?

There are a number of reasons:

• BDE and JET are multi-database engines that contain a lot of functionality an application will never use. Our drivers work with a single database. If you want to retarget a HomeBASE application, you simply change to a different driver.
• Visual Basic applications require a large run-time interpreter called VBRUN.DLL. Like Access, the VBRUN must play all parts for all applications.
• Like VBRUN, the PowerBuilder DLLs must also play all parts for all applications.
• ReportSmith was developed by a third party using its own multi-database engine. In other words, the functionality in BDE is duplicated in ReportSmith.
• We® write tighter code and uses more efficient tools than Borland and Microsoft. All three companies use their own compiler technology. And our® compiler technology produces better software.

We Do All Kinds Of Windows

HomeBASE runs on all versions of Windows and produces Windows 95-style applications for all versions of Windows. This is possible because the Windows 95 controls, such as tool tips (balloon help) and property sheets (tabbed folders) are built into our tool and its applications. They look like Windows 95 applications even when they are running on Windows 3.1x. In effect, we® have upgraded Windows 3.1x to the Windows 95 "look and feel" for Microsoft. Thank you, John De Lorenzo®. You're welcome, Microsoft.

Visual Basic and Delphi come in two versions, 16-bit or 32-bit. To include the new Windows 95 controls, you must use the 32-bit version, but then your application will not run on Windows 3.1. It is another Hobson's choice: old fashioned software or orphaned end-users.

Our developers can produce Windows 95-style applications that compile into both 16-bit and 32-bit versions. A De Lorenzo developer doesn't care which version of Windows his end-users are using. Or whether they upgrade to Windows 95, or when. Thank you, De Lorenzo®. You're welcome, user.

John De Lorenzo
311 East 37th Street
New York, NY 10016
(212) 213-2357
(212) 684-8137

Copyright © 1998. All rights reserved. Reproduction, in whole or in part in any form or medium without the written permission of John De Lorenzo, is prohibited.
Windows, Windows 95 and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
Background music is copyright © 1996 by Michael D. Walthius, all rights reserved, used by permission.