[authors] OOBase: Drew, Chris, Dan, Graham

[Perry Spiller]

Hello, Graham et al
 
Good to hear from a fellow kiwi. I appreciated your
closing comments. I don't want to become a pest.
 
First, let me explain something, so that I don't hijack the
list off in a direction that's more appropriate for some
other list or forum.
 
I'm trying to use my ignorance to help. To expand on
that. I sit down with a book, be it a manual or a tutorial or
whatever else, and try to achieve something that the
author wanted me to achieve with the software that the
author wrote about. (Yes, I read manuals). If I can't get
the result the author was seeking, is it my fault or that of
the documentation? Or some other factor?
 
I consider myself of reasonable IQ. I have reviewed &
revised complex QA manuals. I have taught adult classes.
When I'm teaching something, I'm watching the students
carefully. I can tell if some of the class have missed the
point – it shows in their faces. It alerts me to the need to
recap, right there, before I move on. Manuals – alas –
don't have that luxury.
 
I also find that the trips and traps on that first attempt (at
something, using a manual) get forgotten, as
understanding increases and the pages are turned.
Subsequent attempts to recall it, to tabulate it for the
benefit of later newbies, or the author, are fraught. I.e. if
I don't note down the enigma / problem, right then and
there, the memory of it gets displaced by the following
problems.
 
So here I am, making my first attempt at a database for
some 15 years. One commercial database I used (back
then) is still around: Cardbox. www.cardbox.com The
other has, I think, faded into history. It's that gap that
made me ask, what is the present lexicon (as used in
Base) for the words I knew and still know, such as
"field," "record," "Indexed field," etc.
 
I run two home databases. Both flat file, both in the same
program. Both are a user-defined-fields form of Contacts
List (or Address Book). Both require fairly complex mail
merge files to extract the data in the form I want, to print
on A5 pages. I wrote them years ago and I don't think
I could do it now without much poring over the manuals
(which I still have!)
 
What I seek to do is use Base to 'upgrade' from the
current MS-DOS program. I can probably export the data
records from the old ones and hope to import it into
something I will create using Base. After that, I'll have to
worry about how I can merge an OO Word Processor
document with Base to extract the data I need. That will
include some conditional queries, such as, "IF field_name
"Comments" contains the word "redundant" THEN skip
to the next record.
 
Is SQL only for on-screen look-ups? Or does one use it
for the purpose I've just described?
 
Thanks for the relational explanation. It sounded very
vaguely familiar, as if it was something I'd checked out,
long, long ago, decided the organisation didn't need it,
then forgot about it.
 
Your comments reinforced – to a degree – what I'd
written to Drew. I got to page iv of his Tutorial and
encountered "Create The Relationships." My reaction
was, "huh?" What's a relationship got to do with the
database I'm creating? Of course, I had a different
objective in mind – a flat file database. Drew's Tutorial
was specific and I was trying to hijack it, hoping to
achieve something different. So the fault – if any – was
mine. But it made me pause and think and go back to the
opening paragraphs. Drew set out to create a tutorial that
was specific to its title. From other comments, he's
succeeded. But I gained the impression there was a
slightly undue level of presumption that would deter a
new user – after reading: "It is intended . . . for those that
have never used any database manager." ("that" should
really be 'who')
 
But where does his example 'fit' in the overall scheme of
elucidating the use of Base for creating and maintaining
various types of information management databases? Or,
more correctly, what other Tutorials are needed to
complement what Drew's already achieved? And thereby
round-out any manual[s] so that a newbie can decide
what sort of database they should use from the options
that Base offers?
 
Regards
Perry