From: Jean-Claude Wippler <jcw@equi4.com>
Subject: ANN: MetaKit for Tcl 1.0 - structured storage
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 1998 13:53:03 +0200

MetaKit for Tcl
Version 1.0
September 15, 1998

Copyright 1998 by Equi4 Software.


MetaKit is a highly dynamic cross-platform database library providing
robust storage for medium-sized database applications (a few dozen Mb).
Nested data structures can de defined, accessed, and manipulated, using
commit/rollback to maintain data integrity at all times.  Datafiles are
portable across all platforms (Unix, Windows, Mac, VMS, DOS, and more).

MetaKit for Tcl (mk4tcl) is a self-contained extension for Tcl 8.x built
with the MetaKit core engine, for use from the Tcl scripting language.


========================================================================
The on-line HTML documentation of MetaKit for Tcl is located at:
        http://www.equi4.com/metakit/info/README-Tcl.html

The 1.0 release contains a self-installing demo (Linux, Windows, Mac):
	http://www.equi4.com/metakit/pub/mk4tcl-1.0.tar.gz

That demo can also install platform builds from the website, try it:
	http://www.equi4.com/metakit/mk4tcl/demo.tcl
========================================================================


A DATABASE THAT FITS IN THE PALM OF YOUR HAND

MetaKit offers features such as commit/rollback and high-performance
memory-mapped file paging (on platforms which support this) that you
would usually only expect in full-blown database packages and servers.

Yet the core library, including data manipulation functions such as
sorting, selection, join, group by, and set operations is around 90 Kb
(on Win32 as DLL).  The full-featured C++ API is based on a set of just
6 core classes and encapsulates all complexity to simplify its use.


RUNTIME DATA STRUCTURES

The most unusual feature is that existing datafiles can be restructured
while open, yet with full commit/rollback.  Due to an innovative design,
restructuring is virtually instant and independent of database size.
These versioning capabilities greatly simplify the task of extending
applications which must maintain full backward datafile compatibility.

Datafiles are self-describing and use an extremely compact format.  All
the usual datatypes are supported (ints, floats, variable strings and
binary data).  Adaptive integer sizing automatically uses 1..32 bits per
value (based on magnitude), and all byte-order issues are taken care of.

Each datafile can hold any number of independent tables ("views"), which
can be structured and contain subviews to store hierarchically organized
data (the hierarchy must be homogenous in structure).


THE NATURAL STORAGE SOLUTION FOR TCL

This release of MetaKit for Tcl demonstrates the flexibility of run-time
data structures.  It allows you to define new datafiles, alter their
structure, and efficiently manage large amounts of variable data in Tcl.

MetaKit for Tcl uses the Tcl 8.0 dual ported objects feature to achieve
excellent performance.  Note that Mk4tcl 1.0 does not yet interface to
the most recent data manipulation features of MetaKit version 1.8.


A FREE PACKAGE FOR A FREE ENVIRONMENT

You are kindly invited to check out the flexibility and performance of
this free download, but be warned that it may radically change the way
you look at database- and persistence-libraries, maybe even at Tcl...

        http://www.equi4.com/metakit/info/README-Tcl.html

The MetaKit library is freely available for personal and non-commercial
use.  Licenses for royalty-free commercial use are available for $165,
this includes 1 year of updates and full MetaKit library source code.


________________________________________________________________________
Jean-Claude Wippler    MetaKit home page - http://www.equi4.com/metakit/
Equi4 Software         "Portable database software for a changing world"