Home Shark Introduction Shark Reference Guide
Shark Tutorials 1: Conversational Shark Shark Tutorials 2: Sorting & Organizing Your Data Shark Tutorials 3: Cleaning Up Files Shark Tutorials 4: Reporting Shark Tutorials 5: Applying Commands Selectively Shark Tutorials 6: Making Life Easier Shark Tutorials 7: Expressions and Functions Shark Tutorials 8: Data File Manipulation Shark Tutorials 9: Editing the File Structure Shark Tutorials 10: Multiple Data Files Shark Tutorials 11: Relating Data Files Shark Tutorials 12: Slimming Your Data Shark Tutorials 13: Updating a File Shark Tutorials 14: Advanced Reports Shark Tutorials 15: Form Letters and Text Shark Tutorials 16: Historical Notes: The NDX vs NTX controversy
Shark Expressions Shark Functions Shark Commands Shark Networking
The Configuration File Calendar and Dates Appendix A: The Shark Compiler Appendix B: Shark Key Words Appendix C: Shark Error Messages
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The NTX vs NDX index Controversy:

Shark Tutorials

The first truly practical dtabase format was without a doubt the DBF file. It started out as a way of organizing data into "paragraphs" which could be manually moved from place to place in a report. It wasn't long before early programmers came up with the idea of placing a "header" at the top of the disorganized data with the intention of naming the locations of the data that followed. Data locations were specified in bytes from the start of the file. Next came indexing, whereby data could be stored in alphabetical or numeric order, depending on the nature of the work being organized. Much early work was derived from similar work called "spreadsheets". Spreadheets were useful, of course, but bulky and very slow in operation.

Most computer languages require programs to be written