|
|
|
The following terms are used throughout this guide.
16-bit
An application designed to operate on a 16-bit operating system, such as Windows 3.x. Most 16-bit applications will also operate on 32-bit operating systems such as Windows 95/98 or Windows NT/2000.
32-bit
An application designed to operate only on 32-bit operating systems, such as Windows 95/98 and Windows NT/2000. The theory of 32-bit applications is that they are typically superior since they utilize the underlying power of the newer operating systems and hardware available today.
c-tree®
FairCom’s legacy data engine. The parent product for c-tree Plus.
c-tree Plus®
FairCom’s data engine. Used in many applications and embedded systems to manage data.
column
Synonymous with the definition of field. In the relational model, column is used in place of the term field. Column and field are used interchangeably in this guide.
CTSYSCAT.FCS
The FairCom Data Dictionary file.
data dictionary
A list of the data files used in various databases.
directory
A location where files are stored on disk. A directory can be thought of as a drawer in a file cabinet. Each file folder within the drawer can be thought of as a separate file, or collection of like information.
FAIRCOM.DB
The default script file used to create the FairCom Data Dictionary.
field
A specific piece of information stored within a record. Many fields are commonly stored in one record. For example, a record storing a customer address might contain fields for the customer’s name, address, city, state, zip, and phone number. This example therefore contains 6 fields in each record.
file
A collection of like information, referred to as records. See the definitions for directory, record and table for further information.
index file
A special type of file that provides a mechanism for performing fast data retrieval.
record
A piece of information stored within a data file. Expanding on the file cabinet example used in the directory definition, each piece of paper found within a file folder can be thought of as a record. A record is a unique piece of information similar to other pieces of information (papers) within the file folder.
row
Synonymous with definition of record. In the relational model, row is used in place of the term record. Row and record are used interchangeably in this guide.
segment
A piece of information (field) stored within an index file. An index can be made up of many fields or even portions of fields. Each field or portion of a field stored within an index is called a segment.
table
A term synonymous with the definition of file. In the relational model, table is used in place of file. Table and file are used interchangeably in this guide.
unique index
An index that does not accept duplicate records, indicating each value stored in the index is unique. An index defined over a customer social security number field would typically be a unique index. If the index supports duplicate records, it is said to be non-unique or duplicate allowed. An index defined over one field, last name, would most likely accept duplicate records since it may be common to have more than one customer with the last name of Smith.
VENDOR.DB
A script file used to build the data dictionary for a vendor’s application data files.
