Hi, all.
Daft question:
Can anyone help with any ideas about databases? Specifically, we need
something intermediate between the "looks like a spreadsheet" and the
mega-fully-featured SQL systems. I haven't had much time to play with the
SQL systems on SuSE to figure how well they will suit (so I'm asking
advice).
Having been raised on standalone Image, dBase, Paradox etc. systems, the
SQL server-client architecture is a bit of a mystery to me, yet.
Reasons:
Our pupils are currently using Access - which has a very gentle learning
curve from first contact, and rapid development time to first database. The
educational requirements are that the database table-set is created
entirely by the user, and the Windows optimum has been Access. I would like
to find a Linux equivalent.
This lies as our current sticking-point to migration to Linux next summer,
and I would like to be able to get things moving soon.
Thanks, in advance,
Paul.
Paul P. Ellison,
Information and Communications Technology Manager
Edgehill College, Devon
Hi all, Staroffice 5.2 is now supplied with Adabas D - might be worth a look. Windows optimum is Access?????? Try Lotus Approach, dead easy to use, multiuser access and will read almost anything, even links to ProgreSQL / MySQL via ODBC from Windows. Only problem is it has not been ported to Linux. PostgreSQL is not difficult to use once you get used to - currently investigating possibility of moving school admin onto a PostgreSQL server..... Alan Harris Network Manager Bryngwyn School Edgehill E-Mail Service wrote:
Hi, all.
Daft question: Can anyone help with any ideas about databases? Specifically, we need something intermediate between the "looks like a spreadsheet" and the mega-fully-featured SQL systems. I haven't had much time to play with the SQL systems on SuSE to figure how well they will suit (so I'm asking advice).
Having been raised on standalone Image, dBase, Paradox etc. systems, the SQL server-client architecture is a bit of a mystery to me, yet.
Reasons: Our pupils are currently using Access - which has a very gentle learning curve from first contact, and rapid development time to first database. The educational requirements are that the database table-set is created entirely by the user, and the Windows optimum has been Access. I would like to find a Linux equivalent.
This lies as our current sticking-point to migration to Linux next summer, and I would like to be able to get things moving soon.
Thanks, in advance,
Paul.
Paul P. Ellison, Information and Communications Technology Manager Edgehill College, Devon
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In message
Hi, all.
Daft question: Can anyone help with any ideas about databases? Specifically, we need something intermediate between the "looks like a spreadsheet" and the mega-fully-featured SQL systems. I haven't had much time to play with the SQL systems on SuSE to figure how well they will suit (so I'm asking advice).
Having been raised on standalone Image, dBase, Paradox etc. systems, the SQL server-client architecture is a bit of a mystery to me, yet.
Reasons: Our pupils are currently using Access - which has a very gentle learning curve from first contact, and rapid development time to first database. The educational requirements are that the database table-set is created entirely by the user, and the Windows optimum has been Access. I would like to find a Linux equivalent.
This lies as our current sticking-point to migration to Linux next summer, and I would like to be able to get things moving soon.
Just a quick query, Paul. have your staff/pupils ever had any experience with SQL? Have they had a bash the MS SQL-clone that Access uses at all? Maybe an examination of queries' SQL statements before taking the plunge and to see if pupils can generate a query just by having a play with the SQL side of ACCESS might be a sort of benchmark to begin from. I had a bash with Oracle and SQL for my degree at college (another Edge Hill, Ormskirk) and I absolutely loathed it. I had started with Cobol flat files & dBase 2 and then progressed over the years to using Access, and I found it difficult. But that's probably because I was older and a bit more fixed in my ways. Will these kids be converting or will they be "fresh" to RDBMS? I believe that Star Office 5.2 ships with an Adabas front end? Though I have never used the db with Star Office nor Adabas. Wasn't Natural a 4Gl that generated SQL for Adabas on the IBM/Amdhal mainframe platforms? Anyone know if that's been ported across to Linux? Just a couple of thoughts because I'd also like to give my A level kids the opportunity to use something other than either Access or Approach. -- `paul
participants (3)
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`paul -
Alan Harris -
Edgehill E-Mail Service