Tracy R Reed wrote:
Lan Barnes wrote:
If you like Access, by all means use Access. Nothing you've mentioned
cannot be done with various tools available in Linux.
I prefer to spend my time, which is a limited resource, learning tools
that are open in spirit and fact.
I think you have missed the point. It is unlikely that anyone here
really likes Access. Of course we all prefer Free Software. What we are
saying is that it would be nice if there were a program just as powerful
and easy to use as Access so pointy-haired types could whip up a cool
looking database driven application with a minimum of learning like they
can with Access.
Pointy hair types don't create databases with Access, they create
databases with Excel.
And when they find that the quick and dirty "little" database they've
oh-so-cleverly cooked up can't be properly sorted, and won't easily give
up any useful correlations through data extraction, they call on real
database programmers to clean up their mess for them. And those guys (I
used to be one) try and keep the mop as far away from Access as possible.
Hell, even crufty old DOS-based FoxPro and Paradox 3.5 still beat the
crap out of the latest version of Access for robustness and reliability.
I know someone will want to say "But those old fogys won't do SQL", to
which I reply "Most of the time SQL is way overkill and certainly
oversold for most database applications" (My observation is that SQL is
mostly useful for providing pointy-hair types the ability to do oddball,
and too often meaningless, extractions on data they don't really
understand anyway, but who don't want the time and labor invested into
development of a really useful database application ("I just want all
this data gathered into a big pile with a an English-speaking front-end
I can use to try and figure out what it all means - and if I'm lucky
it'll give me something I can make into a really cool twenty-five minute
PowerPoint presentation to explain to the board why my department is two
years behind schedule and four million dollars over budget without
getting fired").)
--
Best Regards,
~DJA.
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list
