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.
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