Hi
I find it easier to think of it as front-end vs back-end. Base is a good gui front-end to make it easier to see and manipulate the data. The data is held in a back-end.
I think we want to keep the guide as simple as possible.
Back-ends might be small and light such as the HSqlDb one or even a spreadsheet for 'simple' address books and such-like or a back-end might be something hefty such as MariaDb / MySql or Postgresql, possibly even something that is in a web-site and hosted on a web-facing server. I don't think Access easily allows you that level of scalability.
Ideally we would avoid the complexity of the whole back-end vs front-end issue and just deal with Base as if it was like a default Access. Sadly the default built-in back-end in Base seems to be the main cause of problems whenever people have trouble with Base. However, also it seems that one of the biggest advantages of Base is that it makes it much more obvious and easier to connect to a wider range of back-ends. When you try to create a new Base file one of the first questions it asks is "Where is the data?".
Hmm, well the version of java can also often be a problem but it's easier to handle on
the Users List or in forums because more "normal" users are familiar with dealing with java problems.
So, i don't envy anyone trying to write or develop documentation or Faqs or anything because it's difficult to know what to aim for. It seems to be a moving target too.
Regards from
Tom