<!--
	Title: Cornerstone: "The Hottest New Business Product of 1985"
	Source: The New Zork Times, v4(1)
	Date: Winter 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<figure class="float-right-half">
<img src="/public/img/articles/nzt-cornerstone-hottest-new-business-product/cornerstone-packaging.jpg" alt="Cornerstone packaging">
<figcaption><em>Cornerstone: The sophisticated database system for the non-programmer.</em></figcaption>
</figure>

On November 1st, at a press conference in New York City, Infocom
announced Cornerstone™, the first in a new line of interactive business
software.

Cornerstone is a full-featured relational database management
system. Data management programs have traditionally fallen into two
distinct camps: simple-to-use programs with very limited capabilities,
and full-featured programs that require the user to have programming
skills (or to hire a consultant who does). Cornerstone was
designed to put all the power of this second group into the hands of nonprogrammers.

With Cornerstone you can design, build, and use sophisticated data
management applications without writing a single line of code. These
applications could be almost anything — a personnel system, a
client-tracking system, or a roster of current Stellar Patrol assignments.
Once you've designed your database, you can use Cornerstone for five
major activities: storing large quantities of data, selecting data meeting
specified criteria, sorting data in a particular order, calculating new
data, and reporting the data. In addition, Cornerstone can convert data to
or from many other software programs, such as word processors
and spreadsheets.

In true Infocom tradition, Cornerstone is special in its style of interaction.
But in contrast to the games, Cornerstone is designed to make
every decision clear and simple. Most of the time, all you have to do
is select an option from a menu. Cornerstone then responds with a new
menu, or tells you that it's ready to execute your command. For all other
activities, Cornerstone displays a form for you to fill in. At any point,
if you're not sure what to do, you can press the HELP key. This will give
you a detailed description of your exact position and all your current
options. It's like having your very own programmer in a cage. There's
more text in these HELP screens than in two entire interactive fiction
games.

Cornerstone also simplifies data entry. Whenever you've entered
sufficient characters for Cornerstone to know what you want, it will
complete the rest. Cornerstone will also check that your input meets
specified constraints (such as minimum or maximum values). And
at any point, you can press the OPTIONS key to see a list of all
allowable data values. (A lexicographer in a cage?)

<blockquote style="width: 75%; text-align: center; font-size: 1.25em; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid; margin: auto;">

Why Business Products? [See page 6](/library/nzt-why-business-products)

</blockquote>

The other mainstay of Cornerstone is flexibility. You're never locked
into one way of doing things. If you need to look at your information in a
new way, you can create a new report in seconds (with no limit to
the number of reports). If you need to add a third phone number for
Uncle Morris (he always tries to keep one step ahead of the police),
Cornerstone opens up more room in his record — without adding wasted
space for everyone else. In fact, all information in Cornerstone is of
variable length, so there's never a need to specify how long anything
will be. The ultimate test of flexibility is the ability to redefine your
database. With Cornerstone you can do that at any time.

Cornerstone comes with a wide variety of tools to make it easy to
learn and to use. There's a Beginner's Guide with ten interactive lessons.
There's an Owner's Handbook that explains, in clear English, all the
features of the program. There's even a ready-to-use Client Tracking
system database, designed to keep client histories, generate mailing
labels, and maintain a directory of names and addresses. All these materials
come in a unique box that continues Infocom's tradition of
award-winning packaging. The box is made of heavy molded plastic; its
top swivels down to double as a workstation, and is capable of holding
an open manual.

<figure class="float-right">
<img src="/public/img/articles/nzt-cornerstone-hottest-new-business-product/infocom-comdex.jpg" alt="Infocom at Comdex">
<figcaption>At COMDEX in Las Vegas, Infocom strutted its stuff: interactive fiction and
Cornerstone. Thousands of people — retailers, computer manufacturers, press,
and end-users among them — visited the Infocom booth, picked up DON’T
PANIC buttons, and saw the hottest new business product of 1985.</figcaption>
</figure>

As you can probably tell, we're pretty excited about Cornerstone.
And we're not alone. One major distributor has said that Cornerstone
"will be the hottest new business product of 1985." Another has said,
"Every once in a while, a product changes the shape of the microcomputer
market. Cornerstone, Infocom's new database management system, is
just such a product."

The first release of Cornerstone is for the IBM PC, PC XT, PC AT, and
100% compatibles. Cornerstone requires a minimum of 256K of
memory and two disk drives (or one floppy and a hard disk), and will be
available at the end of January. The list price will be $495. In the meantime,
if you have any questions, drop us a line or give us a call at (617)
576-3190.

[**Editor's note:** *A free demonstration disk of Cornerstone will be made
available in a month. If you are interested, address your request to
Barnaby, c/o Infocom, 55 Wheeler St., Cambridge, MA 02138.*]