Hi
I was an MS Access developer for about 10 years until I was able to escape to
Linux. I used OOO/LibreOffice even when I was tied to Windows but it always
fell down when it came to database access.
Base is great as a means of accessing a wide variety of database back-ends, but
its form designer falls well of short of MS Access, both in features and ease
of use. When a new user opens the Base designer the first sight is of a fairly
familiar-looking interface. This encouraging start is undermined once it
becomes apparent how difficult macro programming can be, and how little
flexibility there is over the form's visual design and behaviour.
HSQLDB seems to be powerful in terms of its support for complex SQL execution,
but it is relatively slow and inefficient when there is a large number of
records.
For the vast majority of users, LO Writer, Calc and Impress already provide
everything they would ever want from an office suite. Unfortunately the same
cannot be said for Base.
When I am developing standalone database applications for Linux I use Gambas3,
talking to a Sqlite backend. The connection can be defined in the form designer
or 4 lines of code. There is no dependency on Java, and bound controls and
subforms are fully supported. In short, this combination of FLOSS components
pretty much provides a complete Linux replacement for MS Access.
Sqlite has a large and well-organised development team. It performs really well
even with very large datasets. I feel that making Sqlite the default database
for LO Base in place of HSQLDB would free resources for more development of the
front-end.
I would urge you to take a look at Gambas3 to see how easy it is to develop a
database application with it. Perhaps taking it as inspiration for an enhanced
Base will finally make LibreOffice a one-stop solution for a great many
businesses.
I'm a big LO fan, so I hope this can be viewed as constructive comment rather
than harsh criticism.
Regards
Nige Verity
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