On 05/26/2018 02:59 AM, Tom Davies wrote:
Hi :)
Snip
Base is supposed to MUCH better when using an external back-end -
it's what
Base was originally designed for and it's where Base beats Access.
Annoyingly that seems to be a little known fact that doesn't get
picked up
on by people marketing LO. Oddly hsqldb as an external back-end (ie
installing the most recent version into the OS and getting it from the
hsqldb project themselves, instead of using the old twisted version
hard-coded into LO) tends to be quite fantastic - but it is totally
dependent on Java and Java is a nightmare. So the move away from the
twisted old version of hsqldb to firebird is great news.
Snip
Hi Tom,
History lesson as I remember it: I suppose OO/AOO/LO wanted a built-in
database engine to better compete with Access, which had the Jet
engine built-in. Choosing hsqldb must have had its reasons back then.
Going back before OO, StarOffice had its own built-in database engine,
Adabase D, but I never could get it to work. (Granted, I was a
database newbie back then and my problems may not have been
StarOffice's fault.) I was glad to get OO (back then) working with
MySQL about 2005. BTW: I think there was a crude and circuitous way to
get Access 1.1 to talk to an external database server via a
"connector" system. But I never tried to do it before I converted my
databases to MySQL and never looked back.
My experience: I have always used LO with MySQL as my backend (aka
server) with the Java connector between them. Actually, I am now using
Mariadb, as this is what Slackware Linux distributes now. I have not
had any problems with my database system, after the initial
configuration learning curve. It works. Therefore, hsqldb and now the
proposed switch to the firebird backend are a non-issue for me, as
long as LO will continue to support the external server paradigm. But
that is me. Others may require the built-in engine paradigm.
For years, LO, has been reporting an imminent built-in (aka "native")
support for MySQL so that the Java connector is no longer needed.
However, that functionality seems to be another myth.
Girvin Herr