On Mon, Nov 5, 2012 at 3:28 PM, Christopher Sawtell <[email protected]>wrote:
> Has anybody used KDE/Calligra's Kexi for this kind of thing? > > > Does it run on windows? I am guessing these people will not want to also get used to a new OS. > > On 5 November 2012 14:53, Zane Gilmore <[email protected]> wrote: > >> >> >> On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 3:52 PM, Nick Rout <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> >>> On Sun, Nov 4, 2012 at 3:19 PM, Roy Britten <[email protected]>wrote: >>> >> <snip> >> >>> A spreadsheet is capable of producing reports, and if there are only a >>>> few changes for kid X then a cut and paste from last term's spreadsheet >>>> line to this term's is pretty damn simple, and not really time consuming at >>>> all. >>> >>> >>> We all know spreadsheets are not databases, despite the fact many people >>> use them as such, but is their existing solution just being badly managed? >>> I cannot for the life of me imagine why anyone would not just print out a >>> report from last term and say "change anything that needs updating and sign >>> it" - then do a c&p and make any necessary changes >>> >> >> These are really good points. Spreadsheets could probably do the job but >> they require a lot of discipline, a lot of patience and a lot of technical >> expertise to make them work for a job that could blow out in size and >> complexity at any time. >> >> >>> >>>> They have a budget to implement a "proper" solution for tracking kids' >>>> details. They've been quoted five-figure sums for American >>>> off-the-shelf solutions which seems a bit much. >>>> >>> >> "Off the shelf" (read proprietary) solutions aren't much better, they >> cost a huge sum just for an installation and the you *still* need to get it >> going for the business. If you pay for an outfit to develop it from OS >> technology stacks then you will save them money in the long run. >> >> >>> I reckon this list is a good place to discuss suitable OS/Linux >>>> solutions. Go! I'll start with: can OpenOffice (or LibreOffice, or >>>> whatever) be customised up to support this sort of thing? >>>> >>>> >>> Open/Libre have database hooks - there is a menu for LibreOffice Base in >>> my Linux Mint system. However I would have thought a LAMP based system >>> would be a possible answer. >>> >> >> Using something like Rails,Django or Cake someone should be able to put >> something together reasonably quickly. >> >> >>> >>> There are libraries for producing pdf reports from databases or other >>> data, reportlab for example. >>> >>> Whether the costs of setting something like that up and maintaining it >>> is any less than 5 figures, I don't know. >>> >> >> To get someone who actually knows what is required to do this will almost >> certainly cost into the 5 figures. even if it is low 5 figures. >> From your description (disclaimer: I am hazarding an educated guess from >> your description) to write this shouldn't be much more than a week or 2 of >> work but the main thing is the maintenance and ongoing tweaks. >> You will need to talk to an outfit who wants this kind of work. Try >> talking to the guys at Egressive ( http://egressive.com/ ) It's a local >> Open Source development company. If they don't want the job, they might be >> able to point you at someone who does. >> >> HTH, >> Zane >> >> >> >> -- >> ------------------------------------------- >> Zane Gilmore >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> Linux-users mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users >> >> > > > -- > Sincerely, > Christopher Sawtell > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users > >
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