[libreoffice-users] Re: Tell me it's not true

Am 29.02.2012 14:36, e-letter wrote:
> Interesting; suggests that base exists just to answer the question by
> m$ fans: "where is the equivalent to acce$$?

Right, at a first glance it is nothing but Access mimicry.

> Maybe base should be removed from LO entirely and a separate database
> product be developed, perhaps able to include some aspects of the
> "spreadsheet paradigm" to data manipulation.

The "spreadsheet paradigm" does not work in a database. The purpose is 
to be compatible with *any* of the commonly used SQL servers while 
treating tabular files in the context of the database paradigm. For 
instance, Base reads a spreadsheet so its list content can be used as if 
it were a structured database. It is not intended to be the other way round.
Apart from this, nothing will ever stop people using the calculator to 
organize their data in crude ways. They do not follow any design 
concepts and the spreadsheet allows them to dump their stuff any way 
they want. So be it.

All the connectable external database servers do not provide anything 
like a "spreadsheet paradigm". The functionality of a database is 
completely different to spreadsheets. It is analogue to bitmaps and 
vector graphic.
Something like the MS Works database rolls completely on its own 
proprietary rails. The development of such a component would be 
expensive and the result would not be as useful as the current database 
connectivity.
Just drop these "easy peasy" database development toys. There is no need 
to create databases from scratch. Other programs do this perfectly well 
and the resulting structures can be connected to this office suite. 
Except for the report generators, the database toys are obsolete. Report 
generation is a unidirectional process which yields ODF documents.
Form design is more like writing a program for an alleged end user. The 
program needs to read from and write to the underlying database. This is 
where wizard technology falls way too short unless you invest extreme 
amounts of development resources.
The simple tools that are provided for manual from design are very well 
suited but unknown and undocumented.


--
For unsubscribe instructions e-mail to: users+help@global.libreoffice.org
Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/
Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette
List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/
All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted