
October 2025

Preliminary informations
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- the name "SQLfast" refers to both a programming language comprising 
  and extending the SQL language, and a graphical software environment 
  allowing the development of SQL queries and SQLfast scripts,
  and controlling their execution.
- Most of the resources offered by SQLfast are available in English and in French.
- SQLfast is based on the last stable version of the "SQLite" relational DBMS.
- The SQLfast environment offers two distinct interfaces:
  o "Basic", mainly intended for learning databases and the SQL language
  o "Expert", also dedicated to the programming in SQLfast of interactive
    applications of any complexity.

The "SQLfast" folder
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The "SQLfast" folder includes the SQLfast software environment and the ressources necessary to learn, develop and run SQL and SQLfast applications.

The "SQLfast" guides et tutorials
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It also comprises a large collection of multimedia guides and tutorials. Most of them are "active", that is, they include queries and script fragments that can be executed when clicked on. Among them:
- help documents describing the SQLfast software environment:
  getting started, how to use it, specifications, programming models ("Survival guide"), etc.
- tutorial documents devoted to learning the SQL language
- tutorial documents devoted to learning interactive database 
  programming through the SQLfast language.

These tutorials can be called from the SQLfast user interface though 
the "Help" button in the "Basic" interface and "Help" menu in the "Expert" interface.
They are stored in two directories 
  - "SQLfastHelp_EN" (English version) 
  - "SQLfastHelp_FR" (French version).

The script library of "SQLfast"
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The "SQLfast" directory also includes a large collection of predefined scripts. Notably:
- in directory "BD-2022": the scripts related to the 5th edition of the reference book on Databases
- in directory "Case-Studies": the scripts of the case studies
- in directory "SQLfast-Tutorials": the scripts related to the SQLfast manual
These scripts are available in directory "Scripts".

For more detail, consult the SQLfast home page (https://bit.ly/3LfUa8z).
