What is a database? What is a filing system? What is the difference between a sequential file and a serial file? Is 'direct access' the same as 'random access'?

If you are looking for answers to these or other questions regarding database or file management systems... my advice is to look elsewhere. These subjects are not all that complicated yet the authors of this little work make them seem very intricate indeed.

The warning signs appear, as they often do, in the authors' own preface where they go on at length about the distinction between a database and a filing system without attempting to explain the difference (in the simplest terms, a filing system is the box in which you keep the accumulated telephone bills of the past ten years, whereas a database is your address and telephone book).

They conclude by saying "this book has tried to avoid hair-splitting arguments. Those readers who have a leaning towards academic purity and who may dispute some of our terms are advised to consult a well-stocked library. They do, of course, run the risk of being even more confused than we were!"

Really, this is appalling stuff. Apart from the gratuitous slur on academics everywhere, the authors ought to be aware that a feeling for the niceties of terminology is not academic in any sense, but a sign of careful thought, preparation and good writing.

We don't want to know that the authors were confused; we hope only that they have sorted themselves out to the point where they can explain it to us in reasonably clear, concise language. Unfortunately, they haven't... because they don't.