Jay Lozier wrote:
<snip>
>From the comments on the list, the weakest part of LO is Base. However,
my observation is most people find learning any true database daunting
and thus do not learn how to use any database. Compounding this is the
fact many MSO packages do not include Access. Many thus use a
spreadsheet as a poor man's substitute for a proper database.
<snip>
Jay,
I use Base as a MySQL client to access my databases, which are mostly
inventories. I started with MS Access years ago and switched to MySQL
c. 2004, when a MySQL Open Source client (Rekall) finally appeared for
Linux. But Rekall stopped being supported a few years later and the
version I had still had a few bugs that should have been worked on.
When Base started being a general database server client (interfaced to
MySQL, etc.) rather than that proprietary database thing that StarOffice
used (and may still do so), I looked into switching from Rekall to
Base. Doing so was not a trivial task, since all the work I had done on
data entry forms and reports in Rekall had to be discarded and that work
redone for Base. After recreating all my data entry forms and reports,
I got Base to work reasonably well within my requirements. However, the
latest version (1.2.1) of Oracle Report Builder (ORB) is a basket case.
When it doesn't crash LO, it is dog slow at creating my reports. Too
slow to be used. I have just this week, downloaded an Open Source
report generator program called DataVision
http://datavision.sourceforge.net/ and got it to work on my Slackware
Linux system with MySQL. This version, 1.2.0, is rough, many features
are not working yet and it does not seem to be supported any more
either, since this latest version is dated 2008. However, unlike ORB,
it does do what I want a report generator to do - without crashing and
at a reasonably fast speed. Since it is an Open Source JAVA program
using an Apache license, if any of the Base devs are listening, I
suggest they look into taking over DataVision as an addition to Base.
Base without a report generator is like a computer program that accepts
inputs but does not output anything - useless. Akin to Writer or Calc
not printing!
Was all my database work, including learning a bit of SQL "daunting"?
Yes, I suppose it was, but it was and is a learning experience and I
don't mind learning something new. I am not in the least a SQL master,
but I do understand it enough to get by. If not, I hit the books
again. There are those who can't or won't learn anything new. For
them, there is the Calc tool, which fits their hands better, but maybe
isn't quite the best tool for the job.
Girvin Herr
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