Semi-OT: Database for "average" users

[billt-lxSQFCZeNF4 at public.gmane.org]

> 
> A big problem is that many people who "know" how to do things in Access,
> think they know how to solve all database problems know using of course,
> Access.  Unfortuantely it doesn't scale, it sucks for anything more than
> one person at a time should have access to, and it's SQl query builder
> has many limitations (well it did when I used it many years ago, which
> resulted in me "learning" SQL and doing it myself.)
You have hit the nail on the head here. The problem is that Access makes database seem easy until you hit the limitations of Access (or more realistically your crappy data model).

Databases by there nature are write once systems. Once you have them built and are in production, it is very hard to 'fix' them. Most procustion database fix problems by adding a new table, or creating a view (if the db person knows what they are doing) or loading data multiple times in different tables for different applications using them. I have seen databases that have 3 login tables, and 2 app_user tables because the application developers didn't know the tables existed, or the data model never allowed a method for seperating different users for different applications.

Bad data modelling is the norm, and products like Access only encourage it.

> 
> Many companies are "stuck" with crap Access databases that do the job
> very badly because it seemed like a simple solution at the time that was
> just until they could do it right.  Unfortunately it's in use and they
> never get around to doing it right later, and the staff would complain
> about having to learn a new way to do it (never mind if it would be
> faster and more useful).
> 
> You are generally much better off never starting to use the crappy
> database wannabe's like Access in the first place.
Actually the database is less of a problem here than the people building the crap initially. I have seen the worst systems in DB2 MSSql, and Oracle.
> 
> Lennart Sorensen
> --
> The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
> TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
> How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml
--
The Toronto Linux Users Group.      Meetings: http://tlug.ss.org
TLUG requests: Linux topics, No HTML, wrap text below 80 columns
How to UNSUBSCRIBE: http://tlug.ss.org/subscribe.shtml