The CARDS system needs to be installed on your computer. This requires two steps: install the Database software and install the CARDS software.
You must have Interbase or equivalent installed on the machine running CARDS.
See Borland for a discussion on the technical aspects of Interbase.
CARDS is developed and tested using Interbase Version 7.1
The alternative and recommended database software is the open source version available from Firebird. See Firebird for more details. If your machine has Windows XP installed then it is essential that you use Interbase 7.1 or the open source Firebird 1.5 or more recent versions. The performance of earlier versions are very poor in Windows XP.
Make sure you install both CLIENT and SERVER
Make a choice between the original product from Borland and the free open source version "Firebird". The availability of these products will vary with time. Generally you get a lot more with the Interbase from Borland but this is only more useful if you are a developer or intend to get into database management in a bigger way.
Using the Firebird product is simple and cheap and as far as CARDS is concerned is all you really need. Download the current Firebird product from http://www.asecomputing.com/ASEScorer/Firebird-1.5.3.4870-0-Win32.exe
Once the database software is installed you will no longer need to install it in any later updates of the CARDS.
You also have the option of skipping this installation before CARDS, but you will need to do this at some time as CARDS will not start without the database manager being installed.
Install the CARDS system. The installation program is available on the internet or will be emailed to you upon request. The installation program is called CARDSsetup.exe. Double click on this program and follow the prompts and answer any questions. It is recommended that you use the default settings when there are any doubts.
Once these two programs are installed, start up the CARDS system by double-clicking on the desktop icon showing CARDS. The program will start and ask you to make some choices on the initial setup.
