Date:         Tue, 9 Jul 1996 00:21:21 GMT
Reply-To:     Adrian Barnett <adrianb@DOVE.MTX.NET.AU>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@UGA.CC.UGA.EDU>
From:         Adrian Barnett <adrianb@DOVE.MTX.NET.AU>
Organization: Microtronics Information Systems
Subject:      Re: Whither SIR?

Steve Chesney <Steven.L.Chesney@mti.cdc.com> wrote:
 
>Whatever happened to SIR (Scientific Information
>Retrieval)?  I have used that (on mainframes and
>MS-DOS) to manage study data; its big advantage as
>a data base system is its similarity to SPSS.  It
>also outputs SPSS files.
 
>There is no Windows version yet and I can find no
>mention of it on the internet.
>--
>Steven.L.Chesney@mti.cdc.com
>4201 North Lexington Ave.    612-482-4662
>Arden Hills, MN  55126
 
They are still going, but have moved to Australia. You can get to
their web page at  http://www.sir.com.au/.
They are working on a Windows version, but it is tking a VERY long
time. Amongst other things, they wrote their own multi-API development
system (no small undertaking), to ease the process of developing for
their many platforms. I've been beta-testing the new version (4.0) for
DOS/Windows and its OK, but many Windows features are yet to be added.
As for outputting SPSS files, that has been a problem for the PC
version for some time (about 7 or 8 years that I know of) and the beta
I've got still won't do it right. The only sure way is to use v3.2 and
write an export file. They have acknowledged the bug and will have it
fixed.  I think part of the reason for the slow evolution of the
product has been that the development became moribind under the
previous owners.  Their beta testing program is much more extensive
now than ever before and has uncovered bugs that I suspect had been
there for many years.  They are very serious about getting it right
and I think they will.
 
Regards
 
Adrian