[libreoffice-users] Re: Compatibility of LO Base with Access databases

On 8/1/16 12:13 PM, Girvin Herr wrote:
> On 07/31/2016 07:36 PM, Ken Springer wrote:
> <snip>
> > I understand the concept of Front End/Back End, but never have dealt
> > with it.  Nor have I ever used MySQL, Mariadb, or others.  Access and
> > a bit of dBase is all I've ever used, and in general, even then that's
> > more power than I've ever needed.
> Ken,
> Actually, IIRC, Access has both a client and server built in.  The user
> isn't normally aware of it.  In my experience with Access 1.1, the
> server is called the "Jet" server.  Today's Access may no longer use the
> Jet server, but I am sure something like it is still in there
> somewhere.  I must admit the Access bundled concept is addictive.  As a
> newbie to databases back in the 90s, I liked it and it was a shock and a
> learning experience to wean myself off of it and go with the industry
> standard forms of client/server architecture and the SQL language.

You've just mentioned the big "roadblock" for the average person to make 
use of databases.  They are too complex to learn and use for most 
people.  That's where the "all-in-one" solution is a better answer. 
It's a lot easier for the average user to wrap their heads around and 
then use it.

What happens?  The average person fills up spreadsheet after spreadsheet 
of flat file data.  My brother-in-law is a perfect example.  Years ago, 
he was putting their music collection into a spreadsheet.  When the 
sheet got to large for RAM and his computer crashed, he started 
splitting into multiple spreadsheets.  But that made their goal of 
printing their entire collections of songs, alphabetized, impossible.  I 
took the spreadsheets and combined them into Access 97, created an input 
form and reports, and everyone was happy.

Even getting people to use a flat file database like Database Oasis 
would be better than a spreadsheet.

> Since then I have learned a lot and find the latter concept very
> powerful.  In your case, if Access and dBase had/have more power than
> you ever needed and that power is all that you will ever need, then the
> LO internal HSQLDB engine is probably a good choice for your application.

It may be, if this was a single user issue.  But we need to be 
compatible with MS Office without having enough Windows systems, where 
as I can lay my hands on 3 other Linux systems that are being unused.

> Now that you mentioned dBase, you may, or may not, be aware that LO has
> a dBase option.  But a limitation to it that I found is that older
> versions of dBase files are not supported.  I have some old dBase 1.x
> files with dbase programs that will not load into LO, let alone run.

I didn't know this, but must admit dBase is probably not the best answer.

> Girvin


--
Ken
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"My brain is like lightning, a quick flash
     and it's gone!"


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