<!--
	Title: (SOFTWARE DIGEST) Cornerstone
	Author: Russ Lockwood
	Source: Creative Computing, v11(9)
	Date: September 1985
	Transcription by Steve Derby
-->

<img class="float-left-wide" src="/public/img/articles/cc-cornerstone-review/cornerstone-ratings.jpg" alt="Cornerstone packaging and ratings">

Infocom, the preeminent publisher of interactive fiction (formerly known as
adventure games), is invading the business market with *Cornerstone*, which it
touts as "the sophisticated database system for the non-programmer." However,
although overflowing with the features and functions you would expect
in a relational database management system (DBMS), *Cornerstone* has some
unpleasant aspects as well.

A single *Cornerstone* database can hold up to 120 files, and each file holds
up to 8 million characters. Each record in a file is comprised of up to 160 fields
totaling no more than 4000 characters, although this can be expanded through
the use of subrecords. All records are variable length -- the program uses only
as much storage space as needed.

Each field holds a specific data type. For example, a numeric data type holds
only numbers and provides up to 15 decimal digits of precision. A string data type
holds up to 255 characters. An especially useful data type, called "derived,"
performs arithmetic, statistical, and financial functions just like a spreadsheet.

Perhaps the most sophisticated -- and useful -- feature of *Cornerstone* is
"multivalued attributes." This allows a single field to hold several entries. For
example, if you are tracking a company, you can create a field named "contacts"
and then list several people. Even better, you can go back and add more people to
the field at any time.

The text editing function supports word wrap and automatically opens up
lines when needed. Individual fields can be created and deleted at any time.
The program also provides complex search criteria including wildcards, ranges,
exact matches, and the logical operators `AND`, `OR`, and `NOT`.

*Cornerstone* includes a powerful report generator with full-screen design
capability. It lets you save up to 255 formats and can transfer data between
*MailMerge*, *Lotus 1-2-3*, *dBase II*, *pfs:File*, and other programs using DIF,
SDF, and ASCII files.

The tradeoff for this flexibility is speed. DBMs are notoriously flow, and
*Cornerstone* is no exception. A hard disk system is definitely recommended for
both speed and storage capacity.

*Cornerstone* is menu driven, although advanced users can take advantage
of several shortcuts to invoke functions. Unfortunately, using *Cornerstone*
menus is a lot like navigating through the underground caverns in
*Zork*: you get lost, confused, trapped, and frustrated. The menu terms are
sometimes ambiguous, and invoking some functions requires more intuition
than intelligence.

Comprehensive on-screen, context-specific help and an excellent set of manuals
ease the pain of learning *Cornerstone*. A Beginner's Guide leads you
through a 10-lesson tutorial.

Customer support starts out well for the first 90 days, offering free telephone
hotline support (you pay for the call) and free replacement of defective
disks. After that, you are on your own. However, for a steep annual fee of $150,
the extended support plan provides free program upgrades and up to five problems
(Infocom calls them "incidents") solved by customer support. You pay for
the call and for subsequent incidents.

Overall, *Cornerstone* is a well-conceived database system packed with features.
It has several drawbacks that prevent us from giving a blanket recommendation, but
its flexibility, marvelous multivalued attributes, and outstanding
report generator make it a top contender in the DBMS marketplace.
