> From: Rick Moen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Hmm, that's _not_ what I was referring to. I was talking about a > situation where the MS-Access binary continues to run on a Win32 box, > being reached from the Unix Web server for database lookups via TCP/IP > sockets, using the ODBC database-access protocol. Essentially, this > would shoehorn MS-Access into the classic client-server database LAN > model. > > On reflection, whether this would actually work in the real world or not > might depend on whether MS-Access can be made to function in daemon > mode. It's (the MS-Access "Jet" database engine is) such a junky, > feeble database engine that I have my doubts.
MS-Access does not need to be running in order to access an Access .mdb database. All you need to do is create an ODBC data source in the control panel and your Access database is accessible to any client that speaks ODBC. That's it. Jet uses the file-based desktop database paradigm, not C/S, so there's no server daemon managing access to the mdb, hence the extra care needed to prevent index corruption arising from intensive multi-user access. For a small number of simultaneous users though and a database that will not grow to hundreds of MB(*), .mdb performance and reliability should be acceptable. Otoh, experience in real life shows that databases have a tendency to just grow and grow and grow and grow. (*) some people claim that they can use Access databases in the size of hundreds of MB without problems... I wonder if they're just conveniently forgetting the times where they had to do a complete restore from backup because of unrecoverable corruption. Even Access gurus mention the fact that there are times when the only way to recover from mdb corruption is to restore from backup. Apparently, data corruption is a way of life with multi-user Access databases and when some advocates say 'without problems' - it means something a bit different from the everyday english meaning of the phrase. -- Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [EMAIL PROTECTED] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Official Website: http://plug.linux.org.ph Searchable Archives: http://marc.free.net.ph . To leave, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/plug . Are you a Linux newbie? To join the newbie list, go to http://lists.q-linux.com/mailman/listinfo/ph-linux-newbie
