... if we were lucky enough to be using adisk. Now that I'm approaching the autumn of my career it is becoming a real issue. To those ofyou just starting out, what can I say other than, “it sucks to be you, Fred.”175Chapter 3 Ruminations3.33.33.33.33.33.3Doomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowDoomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowDoomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowDoomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowDoomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowDoomed to Failure and Too Stupid to KnowI ... In general, a VMdesigned to run on multiple platforms cannot make use of a distributed lock manager which wasintegrated into the OS kernel of one platform because the lesser platforms the VM runs on don'thave a prayer of ever having such a tool. If you store 100% of all data in a relational databasewhich is native to the platform providing the distributed lock manager and integrated with saidmanager, and you have a message queueing system which is integrated with the distributed lockmanager, and a message dispatching system which is not only integrated with the distributed lockmanager, but will rollback and redispatch the message when the process handling it hangs ordies, then and only then, can you think about using a VMbased language for development. Yes,there were a lot of ands in that sentence, and for good reason.Before you can go out working in the real world, you need to know two things:1. ... The availability requirements dictate the tools. If managementcannot be made to understand this, you have to either educate them or leave without warning.180AAAAAAppeppeppeppeppeppendindindindindindixxxxxx AAAAAAAnswers to Introduction Review Questions:Answers to Introduction Review Questions:Answers to Introduction Review Questions:Answers to Introduction Review Questions:Answers to Introduction Review Questions:Answers to Introduction Review Questions:How many fields did dBASE III allow to be in a record?128What general computing term defines the type of file an xBASE DBF really is?Relative fileWhat does xBASE mean today?It refers to the data storage format used by various applications.What was the noncommercial predecessor to all xBASE products?VulcanIn terms of the PC and DOS, where did the 64K object/variable size limit really come from?The LIM (Lotus Intel Microsoft) EMS (Expanded Memory Standard)What company sold the first commercial xBASE product?AshtonTateIs there an ANSI xBASE standard? Why?NoEach of the vendors wanted its own product to be the standard put forth by ANSI and theyrefused to reach any compromise.What is the maximum file size for a DBF file? Why?2GB. That is the maximum value for a 32bit signed integer.What was the maximum number of bytes dBASE III allowed in a record? dBASE II?4000 bytes; 1000bytes.What form/type of data was stored in the original xBASE DBF file?Character. Numeric fields were converted to character representation before storing.Can you store variable length records in a DBF file?No.Does an xBASE library automatically update all NDX files?No. It is only required to update those which are both opened and attached.What is the accepted maximum precision for a Numeric field?15.9: Total width of 15 with 9 digits of precision.What is the maximum length of a field or column name?10 charactersAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsAnswers to Chapter 1 Review QuestionsWhat two situations force a user or application to physically remove deleted records?1) The DBF reaches the maximum file size.2) The disk holding the data file runs out of free space.By default, what are string and character fields padded with when using xBaseJ?Null bytes.If you have a DBF open with NDX files attached to it then call a subroutine which creates newNDX objects for those same files and calls reIndex() on them, will the changes to the index files bereflected in the NDX objects your DBF holds? Why or why not?No.NDX objects load the entire Btree into RAM and do not monitor data file changes.What two Java classes do you need to use to build create a report line making the data line up incolumns?StringBuilder and Formatter.How does one tell xBaseJ to pad string and character fields with spaces?Util.setxBaseJProperty("fieldFilledWithSpaces","true");What DBF class method physically removes records from the database?pack()What is the maximum size of a DBF file?2GBWhat DBF class method is used to retrieve a value from a database Field regardless of field type?get()After creating a shiny new DBF object and corresponding data file, what method do you use toactually create columns in the database?addField()What DBF class method is used to assign a value to a database Field?put()What DBF class method do you call to change the NDX key of refernece?useIndex()What DBF class method ignores all indexes and physically reads a specific record?gotoRecord()When you delete a database record, is it actually deleted?No, it is flagged as deleted.What DBF class method sets the current record to zero and resets the current index pointer to theroot of the current index?startTop()What is the main difference between readNext() and findNext)?readNext() requires a key of reference to have been established via some other I/O operation and findNext() does not.What function or method returns the number of records on file?getRecordCount()What happens when you attempt to store a numeric value too large for the column?A truncated version of the value is storedWhat happens when you attempt to store a character value too large for the column?An exception is thrownWhen accessing via an index, how do you obtain the record occurring before the current record?findPrev() or readPrev()What DBF method returns the number of fields currently in the table?getFieldCount()When retrieving data from a database column, what datatype is returned?StringWhat is the maximum length of a column name for most early xBASE formats?10What does the instanceof operator really tell you?Whether an object can be safely cast from one type to another.Are descending keys directly supported by xBaseJ?No.What NDX method can you call to refresh index values stored in the NDX file?reIndex()What ...