Semi-OT: Database for "average" users

[phil]

(I know I'm starting to repeat myself and I'll stop soon, but....)

On May 2, 2005, at 11:19 AM, billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org wrote:

> I suggest that you give a non-administrator the job of setting up a 
> non-trivial samba set up and see how far they get.
>
> Or give a non-expert a highly templated MSOffice environment (ie there 
> is a template for every document, cross templates for linked 
> documents, etc ...) like that found in a law office and see how far 
> they get doing any work.

However my point is that there are trivial uses of these things that 
don't require expert knowledge.  If word processors forced you to do 
all the kerning by hand or some such thing then that would be a reason 
to tell a beginner to use something else for simple jobs.  It may be 
overkill and it may be a waste of resources, but it doesn't present a 
massive barrier to getting started.

> Remember you are not complaining about database technology, you are 
> complaining about the levels of complexity of the project. It is for 
> 'the complexity of the project' that database people get paid for.

I have no problem with database people getting paid.  In fact, more 
would be better.  :-)  My "complaint" is really about a big gap in 
technology between a word processor table (or spreadsheet) on one hand 
and PostgreSQL on the other.  Or maybe it isn't a gap and I simply 
don't know what's there...it's a space that things like Filemaker (and 
maybe MS Access) seem to touch on, but for Open Source equivalents...?

........................
Phillip Mills
Multi-platform software development
(416) 224-0714

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