[GRLUG] OpenOffice.org as Access replacement

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Fri, 2010-01-15 at 14:27 -0500, Michael Mol wrote:
> Back when I was taking a database class at Ferris, I tried using OO.org 
> Base to create a prototype for what I needed to put in DB2. Not a 
> functional prototype, just a GUI visualization of the tables and 
> relationships.
> Without even getting to the "run a query" state of things, I had Base 
> crash a rather large number of times. That left a bad taste in my mouth. 
>   However, all that was three-four years ago, and they may have fixed 
> things up since then.

Supposedly OOBase has been overhauled.  But I haven't really tried it in
recent versions.

> Just about every general programming language has database bindings 
> these days.  

True.  That part is easy.  Creating a UI that doesn't make the user want
to attack the developer with a chain-saw is hard.

> If all you want is something that could be serviced by 
> Access, pick a language you're familiar with and use its DB bindings to 
> put your data into an SQLite back-end. (SQLite can be more or less 
> summarized as a single-program database that runs within your process 
> and saves your data to a file on disk.)  SQLite itself is 
> cross-platform; It's used in Firefox, a variety of programs on my Linux 
> desktop at home, and we use it as a processing engine in a diagnostics 
> analyzer Windows app we built at work.

+1 for SQLite.  It is drop-dead easy [for real, not 'drop dead easy'
like MySQL - where easy-to-use is LAMP-lamer speak meaning
i-have-no-idea-what-I'm-talking-about-because-I've-never-used-anything-else].  SQLite is great for local applications, it avoids need for any services.