On Nov 4, 2012, at 7:31 AM, Peter Gutbrod wrote: >> Have not done any 4D in a couple years so I can't test my theories, or even >> want to try to write pseudo code. > > Interesting, that a lot of A4D users don't have a full fledged 4D app > running and use A4D to make it accessible from the internet as well but > create web applications in A4D using 4D solely as a database engine like a > kind of MySQL substitute. > > Given 4D's restrictive license policy, that wouldn't have been the first > thing I'd look at for sole web applications. >
It would not be my choice either, but in the three cases I worked on, all had a 4D desktop application that they wanted to create a web presence. The databases ranged from bad to horrible designs (like over a thousand elements in a table with names like string24!). Lets face it, it is one of the few applications, at least on a Mac, that you have a decent desktop GUI to a DB. I've also assessed that most DBs were designed by someone on the staff who was a functional person (lets say accountant) that learned how to program in 4D. In learning 4D, they start with bad designs and it just seems to mushroom. I've said many times that Active4D almost makes programming in 4D bearable. Maybe frameworks like Cappuccino can replace the desktop GUI's, but I see a large learning curve that most functionals turned programmers will have difficulty with. I retired and I've learned enough - I just dabble in stuff occasionally. Not sure why I am still subscribed to the list, guess just to see some of the Aparajita posts telling someone to RTFD. He has mellowed though and now uses something like "X is clearly documented"! Sometime you need hit on the head for something to sink in. > > Currently I'm rethinking my database design, so I'll probably can circumvent > the need to access related records from the same table. I was going to say something about that because it sounded like something changed in the record that you wanted to save the original and the change. Another table seems appropriate. But then one project had sort of a linked list structure and I could see that would be challenging with rowsets. I think that 4D allows you to draw arrows from one table field to another, but never figured out how you'd use that - I stayed away from 4D and just did Active4D as one of my part-time jobs of being the IT manager. Steve _______________________________________________ Active4D-dev mailing list [email protected] http://list.aparajitaworld.com/listinfo/active4d-dev Archives: http://active4d-nabble.aparajitaworld.com/
