On Tue, May 27, 2008 at 7:35 AM, Chris G <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > I am hoping to convert an MS Access application to Dabo to remove just > about my last need for running MS Windows. The Dabo version will run > on my home desktop system which is currently running Fedora 8.
Congratulations. Don't you feel so much more liberated now? > > I have Dabo installed and running already but haven't really had any > time to play with it much yet. > > The application is a simple small business accounts program and an > invoicing program. The underlying databases for both are pretty > trivial, the accounts program uses three tables and the invoicing > program uses three tables as well. I'll probably stay with the same > basic design as it seems to work pretty well. > > The thing that (until now) I had never managed to find a Linux > replacement for was the forms and report design tools in Access, it > looks like Dabo has these. On the other hand the thing that caused me > most pain in Access was the Visual Basic coding which always seems > horribly unstructured and inconsistent in its syntax. I'm looking > forward to coding the bits that need some code in Python - wonderful! :-) Interesting that you would say that about the form and report design tools. For Java Eclipse and Netbeans have pretty good form design tools. For Python, Glade has been around for a while as well. However, I still prefer Dabo because the Application code is smaller and much easier to read. If you are moving from VB to Python you will be very pleased. However, bear in mind that much of the coding methodology in Python is different that VB, due in large part to OOP being added as a taped on afterthought to VB. It would be worth it to spend some time learning the Python language itself before delving into Dabo. On another note, if you take an Agile development approach, I find that Dabo has a little too much coupling between layers for my liking. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but it does make testing harder. The nice thing is you can decouple the layers and create a traditional Object model on the backend with a O/R persistence layer not coupled to the UI. I can give you some hints if you want to go this route. > > So, to the questions, which are probably a bit vague at the moment as > I've not really started trying to do the work. (I'm off on holiday > tomorrow too so I'm not quit sure why I'm asking now) - anyway:- A question asked is better than a question not asked. The nice thing about vague questions is they can help in the formation of more specific questions later on. > > Is there any reason to choose one database engine rather than > another? It's only a single user application, no complex locking > requirements. I've got both mySql and postgresql databases already > on my system. The choice is mostly personal preference. John likes to use Postgre and you will probably see an email from him with benefits and tradeoffs. I prefer MySQL, not for the features but because my agile DB design tools are built for MySQL and recoding to another database would be a PITA. MySQL does have it's drawbacks in terms of the way it does locking, but that shouldn't be a concern for you. > > Most of the 'programming' bits of my accounting system are purely > 'control' actions that automatically fill other controls (or > re-calculate their values) when values are entered. Is this sort > of thing reasonably easy/practical to do in Dabo? > This is very easy to do. You can do it several ways including binding an event and defining a handler method, setting the DataSource and DataField properties, and setting a dynamic property to a recalculation method. I would go into detail but I think you can pull much of the information from the Wiki. You can always email specific problems to the list as well. > The reports are pretty simple, driven from queries on the tables, > watching the Dabo Report Designer Overview screencast suggests > that this should be pretty straightforward in Dabo - am I likely > to hit any 'gotchas'? I haven't hit a snag yet on the reports. Just bear in mind that the screencast is somewhat old and changes have been made since then. Still, it is a good start. Nate L. _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: [email protected] Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-users Searchable Archives: http://leafe.com/archives/search/dabo-users This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
