Introduction
************

EDB is a database program for GNU Emacs.  It permits users to manipulate
structured (or not-so-structured) data within Emacs and provides many of
the usual database features, including:

   * Flexible, customizable file layouts.  Data may contain any
     character, including those used to delimit fields and records.
     Files read and written by the database may have arbitrary formats.

   * Typed fields (e.g. integer, date, string); fields may also be
     subject to additional constraints (prime number, date before today,
     string that appears in some other record, etc.).

   * Arbitrary data display formats for viewing records.  Multiple
     display formats can be open on a database simultaneously, viewing
     the same or different records.  The data display format can be
     automatically chosen based on the record's field values.

   * Selective display of only those records of interest; others become
     temporarily user-invisible.

   * Standard GNU Emacs editing commands, which work only within data
     fields and not on the surrounding text.

   * Database summaries, which show in a single buffer one or more lines
     of information about each record.

   * Sorting, with an easy-to-use a graphical interface for defining the
     sorting criteria; most sorting orders you would care about are easy
     to specify, but arbitrary ones are also permitted.

   * Merging and reconciliation of databases.

   * Reports generated from database information.

   * Highly customizable via the underlying programming language, Emacs
     Lisp; many hooks and useful variables are provided to make this
     even easier.

   * Documented by a 90-page manual.

EDB is more ambitious--and therefore more complex--than its forerunners
(such as Forms Mode by Johan Vromans <jv@mh.nl>).  While other packages
don't provide as much functionality as EDB, they may be more appropriate
for simple needs.