Hi Andrew, >> The "self-contained database" feature is targeted at unexperienced >> users, > OK, now here is where I have a concern, self-contained databases have a > whole list, imo, of benefits for developers targeting small businesses > and in-house developers at small businesses (SB).
Okay, I should have been more precise. Base is targeted at the famous SOHO (single office / home office) market, and in my understanding, this also includes scenarios in small businesses, and even small workgroups in larger businesses (which, as far as small database applications are concerned, aren't too different from smaller businesses). So, I see us on the same line here. Still, the original item was about schema support. I know for sure that when I had my first database experiences, I wouldn't have known what "schemas" are, what they're good for, and how to use them. They would only have added an additional level of complexity which I didn't need at that time. I claim that this holds true for most novice users coming to databases. I think for those, we should keep it as simple as possible, and as powerful as necessary. IMO, this excludes schema support, in the first run. One might think about different expert levels, and exposing the full power of the engine to the real experts only. However, I don't see this as an urgent task - there's other more important things to do. See below. > If I as a developer do my job correctly then from the users stand point > it dosen't matter if they are 'unexperienced or not', they will never > actually be digging around at the database object level. They will be > thinking in the business object level. At the moment, Base doesn't really offer you everything you'd need for this. As very basic issue, it doesn't allow you to specify a form to open automatically, which means every user which opens a database is immediately confronted with the default UI, which is only very little customizeable (by you). (I suppose this is what you meant with "auto-run forms"?) Not to mention that IMO, "forms as text documents" have advantages in some cases, but certainly the disadvantage that you can hardly use them to create a dialog between your application and your users. This requires, well, dialogs, not text documents. This, for instance, is something I'd see as more important: Give you, as the developer, the possibilities to really "do your job correctly", in the sense you said this above. At the moment, we're not there, yet, but I hope we can improve on this for 2.x. This is what I would like to focus for 2.x: Make Base capable to create database-driven "solutions" or "applications" or however you would call this. This includes the auto-run forms, dialog-base forms, reasonable scripting support, perhaps a more comprehensible form API, and much more. > Now if they, users, are going to start creating databases applications > for themselves. Then they will by definition, and by temperment quickly > become NOT unexperienced users. Depends on how difficult it is :). I mean, you can stay unexperienced for a while, as long as the application is good enough to still allow you to create fairly complex solutions. So, my priorities here would be: Improve the application, so that people can work with it without too much database knowledge, and then improve (or expose) the export core functionality. > Anyway, I know that the road of development for 2.0 is already taken, > but 2.01 is still just a twinkle in the eye, right. 2.0.1 will most probably be a bug fix release only (as was every x.y.* release so far), so don't expect big features there. > So,as a now self employeed developer, no longer with the budgets of the > corporate commercial software world at my disposal and tageting the SB > environment, under 50 users, I am hoping OOo can give me a tool just > close to as good as MS Access has been. And do so in the embedded > database format. I definately want to give you this tool :), but we cannot do the second step before doing the first one. > Oh and Please, Please events at the database file level What is "events at the database file level"? Ciao Frank -- - Frank Schönheit, Software Engineer [EMAIL PROTECTED] - - Sun Microsystems http://www.sun.com/staroffice - - OpenOffice.org Database http://dba.openoffice.org - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
