Re: slightly OT "Desktop Database" options

Well, I will put my hand up for MySQL also.

YOU should be providing the add-edit-delete functionality in your own front end! Man, it isn't difficult. I can do it so can you!

MySQL is so easy to install - it isn't a hog either, it is fast and you can hide it very easilly. So easilly that my end users generally don't realise that their is something running on their machines! I used the Nullsoft Installer package and in less than a day figured out how to have it install MySQL and my application, set up MySQL as a service and start it the first time.

Just for the sake of cleanliness I start and stop MySQL as a service from within my application.

This application replaces an earlier one based on Access and written in VBA. It was a dog of a thing. Hard to maintain, rather flaky and oh, did I mention all the limitations of Access? Oh and speed? Did I mention speed? To be honest I am glad to see the back of it. The new one is written all in Perl, uses Tk and, of course MySQL.

jdtoronto

Comment on Re: slightly OT "Desktop Database" options

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Re^2: slightly OT "Desktop Database" options by dimar (Curate) on Oct 06, 2004 at 20:02 UTC
Hats off to you, and thanks very much for the response ... I agree with your "it isn't difficult" remark, and to be completely blunt, it is so 'not difficult' that I was sorta fishing for leads on stuff that is already done. This is a low-priority project that I am not getting paid for ... and this kind of work was old-hat for me over ten years ago ... so perhaps you can understand the question is less 'proof of concept' and more 'anybody got some spare code'. As far as the "MSFT Access hell" all I can say is "I feel your pain (been there done that)" In fact, memories of this past anguish is partially what prompted my question. It seems as though there is an "unmet market niche" out there ... small(ish) desktop database with the elegance and power that only a perlmonk could love, but with the pointy-clicky approachability that is the strong-suit of the (otherwise inelegant) MSFT Access category (which is what basic users need). Perhaps those two realms are just too distant, like finding someone who is fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese? So for now, it looks like a coin-toss between MySQL-Perl-Tk and (hold my nose) MSFT Access or Spreadsheet. Not to bash MSFT but their scripting and performance leaves a lot to be desired. BTW I am suprised no one mentioned Open Office ... I'm still wondering if there's anything else out there	[reply]

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Re^2: slightly OT "Desktop Database" options
by dimar (Curate) on Oct 06, 2004 at 20:02 UTC

Hats off to you, and thanks very much for the response ... I agree with your "it isn't difficult" remark, and to be completely blunt, it is so 'not difficult' that I was sorta fishing for leads on stuff that is already done. This is a low-priority project that I am not getting paid for ... and this kind of work was old-hat for me over ten years ago ... so perhaps you can understand the question is less 'proof of concept' and more 'anybody got some spare code'.

As far as the "MSFT Access hell" all I can say is "I feel your pain (been there done that)" In fact, memories of this past anguish is partially what prompted my question.

It seems as though there is an "unmet market niche" out there ... small(ish) desktop database with the elegance and power that only a perlmonk could love, but with the pointy-clicky approachability that is the strong-suit of the (otherwise inelegant) MSFT Access category (which is what basic users need). Perhaps those two realms are just too distant, like finding someone who is fluent in both English and Mandarin Chinese?

So for now, it looks like a coin-toss between MySQL-Perl-Tk and (hold my nose) MSFT Access or Spreadsheet. Not to bash MSFT but their scripting and performance leaves a *lot* to be desired.

BTW I am suprised no one mentioned Open Office ... I'm still wondering if there's *anything* else out there

[reply]