On Saturday 04 October 2003 20:28, ian wrote:
On Sat, 2003-10-04 at 17:16, garry saddington wrote:
I have used Knoda for AS and A-level project work and it seems to do all that is required. The only problem is that I am not sure that the examiners know what to make of it judging from some of the comments from moderators, but I am in the process of getting this sorted. They have really only ever seen Access and so are not used to the different design views in Knoda. Knoda differs from Access in that students have to write their own queries in SQL and this gives them a deeper understanding of the underlying table structures and also gives them some concrete skills from a qualification (ICT) that does not give them any experience of any programming or scripting, and seems to have evolved its practical aspects from parallel evolution with MS office. regards
Thing is we need something that is suitable for teachers who are not that expert for KS3 and KS4. If anything they will know Access so even if a bit distasteful it needs consideration. The OO.o project is committed to getting such a database solution. I have already commissioned an initial feasibility with Birmingham Uni. computer science department and we have an established dialogue with Sun engineers working on the OO.o project. However, this isn't going to happen overnight and its likely that some significant funding will need to be found. I have to let my head rule my heart to an extent on this. I can't afford to simply spend time doing these things because I have to earn a living too. Every day I spend out doing something like meeting the people at Birmingham Uni. costs the company £400. Although I got a grant for £3000 to commission the study it takes time to get these grants and to organise what is to be done with the money.
I know OO has database access that is fairly mature and I do believe that it has a role to play in certain aspects (mail merge and basic database access at table level) but it does not provide the Access-like metaphor with easily designed forms and reports that Knoda does at present, which will, with the upcoming Python scripting support provide a very useable Access replacement. I have KS3 and KS4 teachers using Knoda without a problem. Using native SQL is more logical and understandable than the drag and drop methods used by OO and Access. Why don't you give Horst Knorr some reward for his work instead of spending money on feasability studies when worthwhile solutions already exist? Kind regards garry