Eric Dannewitz wrote:
My position does have merit. I worked as a DBA (Database Administrator) for two years in a startup that was eventually sold off to the University Of Phoenix. I dealt with hundreds of thousands of tests that came in flat file and we had to design aggregated table structures for them. All in Oracle. Another client we had was Cisco. Have you met John Chambers? Didn't think so. So, STFU. I have the experience. I can send you the database SQL code if you want. It is totally overkill setting up a huge relational thing like that for what the person wanted. They wanted simple. You and a couple of others give out the most complex way of doing it. That way works great for huge amounts of data. It isn't really the best way in this case.
Agreed, setting up a "huge relational thing like that" is overkill. Nobody has mentioned SQL, nobody has mentioned Oracle, except you.
Filemaker is definitely not either of those things, and especially with a library template already shipping with the program it's not very difficult to start entering the data.
It seems that your impression of relational databases are of the SQL or Oracle nature, involving huge projects. Not all have to be that way.
Relational databases can be hugely complex or they can be simple. Flat-file databases can be hugely complex with multi-page records where nothing can be found easily. It's not the relational-vs-flatfile thing which makes one complex and another simple. It's the design of the database properly from the start which determines that.
Flatfile databases can be just as messed up due to inexperienced data entry as well as relational databases can be. Nothing can prevent that, except limiting the ability to enter data to a few people who are experienced enough in computer usage to be able to be reasonably expected to do things properly.
Relational databases allow for more varied ways of looking at the data, and they allow (in my limited experience, which admittedly isn't as large as either yours or David Fenton's) for easier data entry of new works, once the composer data file is entered.
-- David H. Bailey [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Finale mailing list [email protected] http://lists.shsu.edu/mailman/listinfo/finale
