                  README for Mini SQL Version 2.0 Beta 5
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Welcome to Mini SQL 2!  It's been a long time coming but we hope the
wait has been worth it.  As the development of mSQL 2 continues, further
funtionality will be made available.  This release concentrates on
adding the underlying performance and data handling features to mSQL.

The software has changed quite a lot since the 1.x version of mSQL.
Some of the new features are greatly improved support for indexing your
data, much better performance for qomplex queries and large data sets,
the addition of variable length TEXT fields, support for server managed
numeric sequences, better regular expression handling, and easier
control over the configuration of the server.

If you want to read a more detailed description of the new features
please see the "General Information (and comparison with 1.0)" section of 
the manual.  The manual is now distributed in HTML format and can be found
in the doc/manual directory of the mSQL 2.0 distribution.  Please note
that the manual is not 100% complete as of this release (there are only
so many hours in a day).  Most of the information is there with the
exception of the W3-auth security documentation.  An up-to-date copy of
the manual will always be on our web site so check back there a little
later for the completed manual.

Notes on installing this release can be found in the INSTALL file
located in the root directory of this distribution.

Future releases, contributed software, support documentation and other
mSQL related tools will now be distributed from the Hughes Technologies
WWW server (www.Hughes.com.au).  Please have a look around the site to
see what information is available.  We will be maintaining a Frequently
Asked Questions document on the site to help people come to grips with
mSQL 2.0.

As usual, the mailing list for Mini SQL is msql-list@bunyip.com.  If you
wish to join the list, send a mail message containing the word
"subscribe" to msql-list-request@bunyip.com.  If you have any questions
about mSQL please send them to info@Hughes.com.au (not to my personal
address).


I'd like to take this chance to thank the alpha testers (the mSQL
Hackers) for their efforts.  The 2.0 code went through 9 Alpha test
release over several months before going to this Beta release.  The 
efforts of the Alpha testers have certainly improved the quality and 
reliability of the software for everyone.  There are many people who 
have helped to get the 2.0 code to Beta quality but I'd like to offer 
special thanks to the following people :

	Jeff Allen (slow off the blocks but finished strongly :)
	Arley Carter
	Kenneth Holmlund
	Andreas Koenig
	Piers Lauder (winner of the "make 2.0 dump core" contest)
	Dirk Ohme
	Jason Ornstein (enough guts to work on pre-pre alpha code!)
	Steve Roussey (aka Mr Random)
	Jeff Rowe
	Brian Topping

Thanks guys!



David J. Hughes
Bambi@Hughes.com.au
