News Group Posts

unibasic data transfer

From: Pat Welch <patubb@inreach.com>
Subject: Re: data transfer, SCO->NT
References: <df4a30f0.0112171037.56442600@posting.google.com> 
Date: Thu, 20 Dec 2001 06:10:26 GMT

Ryan McCullough wrote:
> 
> I have an old sco machine. I do not know the version. The prompt
> starts with xenix though. It has no tape drive. The networking appears
> to be a serial port.
> 
> This machine was acquired in a buyout and the information in it is
> parts numbers, prices, and company contact information. We need this
> information transfered to some sort of universal format, like a csv,
> so that it can be imported into another DB. It does not appear to be
> very big. The information is accessed through a menu system called
> unibasic.
> 
> Is anyone familiar with how unibasic stores information?
> 
> I have very little unix skills. Enough to be dangerous. I would like
> to try either copying the information to floppies in a floppy rotation
> to either a linux machine with ftp or directly to my NT machine. I
> don't know if the floppy drive even works though. Another option is to
> use the direct serial connection. Can someone point me to some
> information on this method? With a direct serial connection would I be
> able to use some sort of ftp program? Thanks for any help.

I've been working in Business Basic languages since 1979 - but not in
the language variation that Unibasic uses - I'm from the MAI/Basic-4
branch of Business Basic and Unibasic is from the Data General branch.
They share no more than 40-50% language syntax.

Unibasic programs use a custom, formatted file system somewhat like
cobol KSAM (but NOT compatible with KSAM structures). It is NOT in any
kind of format that standard Microsoft programs can read.

You'll need specialized help extracting data directly from the files.
There's always the option of capturing report printouts in a data file
for later parsing.

Or, try posting a request for assistance on the mailing list sponsored
by www.businessbasic.org.

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