Access still does not have an equivalent in the open source world. Here
is a brief description I would list for Access. Would love to see base
brought up to snuff or find another viable alternative. Any suggestions?
Features:
tables
queries
forms
reports
macros
Programming language
relationships
connect to odbc sources
*ALL items in 1 file (not folder or multiple parts).*
Ability to send the file to a user so they open it without special
configuration/installation (Think sending a doc or spreadsheet via email)
On 11/30/2014 12:34 PM, Charles Thayer wrote:
Re-opened the Base/Writer project I did for my brother-in-law's parts
database.
I stepped into the sweet spot of toy (or private) applications that
you can do with Base. If the number of users or the number of records
begins to scale up, I run into the problems that everyone else
encountered.
The main difference is that I did my code in Python, which was a
different animal than Basic-like languages such as Gambas.
If I ever get a short vacation from caring for grandchildren and
elderly in-laws, I could look at an accessible database solution. But
unless you are very young, you may not live to see it.
Charles in NJ
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
-------- Original message --------
From: Mike Ray <[email protected]>
Date: 11/30/2014 7:42 AM (GMT-05:00)
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Hpr] @Ahuka; Libreoffice base?
Nigel,
Useful info. I haven't written Access since about 1999 and at that time
it was Access 97, which I think was the top of the tree, since which it
sounds like it has become bloated and more difficult to use.
I will give gambas a look, but of course it will need to be accessible.
wysiwg drag-and-drop form designers are a dead-loss when you can't see.
I assume, like most things, that it writes XML files to store it's form
designs so even if it isn't too accessible on the design front it might
be possible for me to hack the forms some other way.
I think I am about to get involved with some development for which
Access would be good, but cross-platform would be better as it is
involving libreoffice calc. I have used sqlite very successfully in
other projects so gambas and sqlite is sounding good.
First I have to persuade a bunch of suits that 'Open Source' isn't
synonymous with ritual murder and crimes against humanity.
The last line of your post anticipated what I was thinking and which I
will save that nice Mr Fallon the trouble of saying 'do a show, do a
show'.
Mike
On 30/11/2014 11:31, Nigel Verity wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Hi
>
> I also used to be an Access developer. When I came over the fence to
Linux (2008) I looked for an equivalent tool and made the assumption
that LibreOffice Base would fit the bill. I spent several months off
and on attempting to reproduce the sort of user interfaces and
functionality that are simple and commonplace in Access.
>
> The single most limiting factor is the form designer. Because a Base
form is really a variant of a Writer document you have a lot less
control over the general appearance and visual wizardry which you can
employ. At best a Base application GUI looks like something from the
very early days of Visual Basic.
>
> The programming language (a Basic variant) is powerful, but you
often need a lot of code to achieve what may require one or two lines
in Access. If you've ever created a GUI in Visual C++ and the same in
VB/VBA then you will appreciate the scale of the difference.
>
> I found the native HSQL database to be very slow once the tables
start getting large - at least in its LibreOffice implementation. You
would be better off connecting to a different engine. MySQL gave
pretty good performance, but then you are moving outside the core
Access concept.
>
> Eventually I gave up on Base and looked around for something else. I
discovered Gambas, which is a development environment using the Basic
programming language. It's very close to VB in both concept and
implementation - in fact better in many ways. This can connect to a
SQLite database in 4 lines of code. You can use explicit coding to
interface with the database but Gambas also provides data objects and
bound controls. With SQLite as a single-file database, a Gambas +
SQLite application is as close to an analog for Access as you will
find on Linux, with much the same level of developer-friendly
functionality as Access provides as well.
>
> The latest couple of versions of Access (post ribbon) have
introduced massive amounts of bloat and become more cumbersome for the
developer. Gambas avoids all that, making it a pleasure to use.
>
> In brief, Base is the one module of LibreOffice which falls well
short of its Microsoft equivalent. It has its uses for simple tasks
like mail-merge but as a development environment I would avoid it. In
my view, for the Access developer migrating to Linux, Gambas + SQLite
is the way to go. If you're still on Windows then you're best to bite
the bullet and stick with Access.
>
> http://gambas.sourceforge.net/en/main.html
> https://sqlite.org/
>
> Just writing this is giving me ideas for an HPR episode......
>
> Regards
>
> Nige (aka Beeza)
>
>
>
>
>
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>
--
Michael A. Ray
Analyst/Programmer
Witley, Surrey, South-east UK
"Longum iter est per praecepta, breve et efficax per exempla"
(It's a long way by the rules, but short and efficient with examples)
Interested in accessibility on the Raspberry Pi?
Visit: http://www.raspberryvi.org/
From where you can join our mailing list for visually-impaired Pi hackers
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