On Tue, 2010-11-09 at 00:27 -0500, Tim Holloway wrote: > Well, as I said before, it's not a wise thing to hold one's breath > waiting for MS-Access for Linux
Well one could use OpenOffice with their RDBMS of choice using JDBC drivers and achieve something kinda close to Access like interfaces and functionality. Of course with a much richer back end. Not sure the GUI's would be exactly the same, or as easy to construct. > There's also the consideration that the goal was to get familiar with > SQL, not a specific graphical query builder/programming system. It's a > pretty widely held point of view in the circles that I travel in that > just about the worst possible way to learn a language is by using a GUI. +1 > We've seen some pretty useless programmers turn out that way, which is > why when people ask which is the best IDE to learn Java, we answer > "Windows Notepad", and we're not entirely joking. All one needs is syntax highlighting, and maybe code completion for the lazy/forgetful. The rest is frosting, decorations, candles, etc on the cake, but should not be relied upon. Much less used at all for learning. Sometimes I wonder why I am using an IDE at all. Short of the integration with build systems, easy ways to compile, run, and test things. But scripts and other things can suffice just the same ;) > Although here in Linux-land, we all know that the One True Editor is > Emacs. :) I am so glad I never really got into vi or emacs. Talk about holy wars :) > Actually, MS-Access (and Excel) have been good to me. At one point Chrysler/Dodge was using Access at either dealerships or local regional storage facilities. That nightly would sync up with the main global database which was DB/2. A solution IBM put together for them, and seemed to work. I wasn't to keen on the Access part of things, but it really wasn't use for much more than a single days worth of data to my knowledge. It has its uses, and ends up in places. No place I would ever use or touch :) > It's not really recommended to use either MS Access or FoxPro as the > backend database for a web application, however. That was quite well known and understood many years ago. Before I even got started with Linux and was messing with ASP. I recall most every book I had on ASP saying do not use Access for a variety of reasons. Which had me looking around for free database that I could work with on Windows back 00-01 > Access is fine for quick-and-dirty. I recommend things like Access/VB > *Windows) or SQLite/Python (Linux) for prototyping. However, in my case, > I'm ultimately paid for industrial-grade products, so the prototypes are > just the first stage in more complex environments. If I'm lucky, anyway. > One of the greatest tragedies that can befall an application is when its > rough draft is dragooned into being the production app. Thats the biggest thing to worry about with anything database related. Its life cycle, and what can accidentally end up in production, can also remain there for years. I misnamed a column in a database that did not get corrected and remained in production for 7 years. Till I get to redevelop the app and db for the client. Of course the design was pretty horrible, typo was the least of my problems. Usually everything you code/create today is usually worse than what you will code/create tomorrow. -- William L. Thomson Jr. Obsidian-Studios, Inc. http://www.obsidian-studios.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
