PowerTree file format

[Paul Squires]

Is the PowerTree file format protected by copyright? I
know the program itself is, but I have seen the file
format and wondered if borrowing some concepts from
it would be illegal???



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Paul Squires
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Lance Edmonds]

The file format is the intellectual property of PowerBASIC, Inc. Also, reverse engineering the PowerTREE engine is not permitted, as that would breach PowerBASIC's rights. Sorry!

The actual format specification has never been released, so I can only suppose that you have looked at the binary image. The actual file format is more complicated then you can imagine, especially if you have only look at a relatively small index file in binary format...

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Paul Squires]

Lance, you're probably right about the complicated format.
However, I spend most of my days analyzing data file structures
using some advanced analysis tools like WinIdea and ACL and the
structure of the file I looked at seemed pretty straight
forward. Now, the implementation logic behind its use is
probably more involved!

I won't talk about it here b/c if the format is protected then
that's the end of that

Lance, you can close this thread if you like. Thanks for the
info!

Thanks,


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Paul Squires
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Michael Mattias]

Regardless of PB's particular implementation, their own literature states it's some kind of B-tree.

There are tons of books on B-trees; any one of them would be a source of many of the same ideas incorporated in the PowerTree(tm) product.

I think someone ported Joe Vest's "BT" index manager origianlly written for Turbo BASIC to PB/Win. There you can get the same ideas in BASIC source code format.

MCM

[Paul Squires]

Thanks Michael but I have no problems with the btree structure,
I have been studying it for years. I remember many years ago
picking apart Joe Vest's spagetti code for early BASIC. I have
read many (too many) books on algorithms

I won't talk about the PowerTree btree implementation but from
what I can see it is very elegant in its "simplicity".



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Paul Squires
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>

[Michael Mattias]

The b-tree is simple and elegant. On paper.

Since you have 'picked apart' Mr. Vest's code, you know the deveil is in the details.

My point was, just looking at index file data regardless of vendor is hardly going to tell you any algorithms.

If PowerTree(r) is fast and easy to use, then it would seem PB has out-detailed the other devils.

MCM

[Lance Edmonds]

We think so!

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Lance
PowerBASIC Support
mailto:[email protected][email protected]</A>