Semi-OT: Database for "average" users

[David Mayerlen]

On Mon, 2 May 2005, phil wrote:

> On May 2, 2005, at 1:11 PM, JoeHill wrote:
>
> >> The windows (and especially MAC) world has the
> >> philosophy of having everything and the kitchen sink into one
> >> product. Neither
> >> side is right or wrong its a matter of preference. I prefer to be
> >> able too
> >> control what I put into my systems.
> >
> > Don't know much about DB, but doesn't anyone who 'knows better' share
> > this same
> > preference? Have we not seen the sometimes disastrous results of
> > putting out a
> > software product with too much bloat built in (ie. Win)?
>
> If non-techie adoption is considered desirable, there does have to be
> some compromise with the ease-of-use concept.  Not to get into a
> "remember when" competition, but I've done useful work using filters
> and pipes.  I've also installed Linux by starting with a kernel and
> building up from there.  I really don't expect many people coming to
> the OS today -- especially if they're coming from other systems -- to
> be happy with the minimalist approach.
>
> The idea of keeping Unix-style systems only for the techno-elite has
> some merit, but it doesn't seem to be where most of the supporters are
> trying to go.

 I don't think that non-techie use is the goal. The goal is to "normalize"
the amount of detail work. Funny how we rarely program in assembler
anymore. Thats the whole point of what Upstart has done. Is a bit
ridiculous to program some user/login tables. That has been done so many
times before surely we can wrap that in a higher level package. We benefit
in many ways not the least of which is security ... betcha at least half the
programmers who build it from scratch don't get it right.

 Ever build a reusable code library in "C"? Given the opportunity most
programmers seem to want to program everything from scratch and things
take way longer than they should and then become unsupportable messes.

 Find common requirements. Wrap them in little black boxes that meet those
requirements.

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