[plug] ZDNet Australia News & Tech OS SCO takes Linux to Murdoch Univers ity (fwd)

[shayne]

Access isn't an entirely attrocious DB, it's just entirely attrocious
for multi user applications. However on multi tier apps that can be
skirted around assuming the mid layer is behaving itself and knows to
lock and unlock smartly. That said it does have some bad mojo problems, 
It doesnt multiuser well. It doesnt optimise IO for fast use. It can't
be run as a service (although yuo can ODBC it) but most importantly,
it's a single flat file for EVERYTHING. That is, you bust the file and
all hope is to be abandoned. It does lose data occasionally too. That's
a bold claim I'm making , but having seen some goonball access setups
lose thousands of manhours of work , it is NOT to be trusted with
important data.
Now it *DOES* have some supernifty aspects. Frontends! It is dead simple
to create your database structure in access, export it thru ODBC (piss
easy. Hit "export!") back to MySQL or PostgresSQL (remember to whack an
autoindex & timestamp in each table. Access seems to get a hernia with
out them) and then link them back in. Draw pretty form, make pretty
enquiry and impress boss with multiuser madness. Remember your
transactions for great justice. My fave was to use MySQL, write in
Delphi and make pretty activex forms to embed in outlook. All tech (bar
mysql & delphi) I despise , but it sure makes bosses happy.... then it
makes em puzzled when you point out the server is a whacky little debian
box running on a P133 server with 64 meg.

*USUALLY* Access based apps can be re-routed via ODBC, and I strongly
recomend that any app using access be migrated to
MYSQL/POSTGRESQL/MS-SQL (Sadly MS-SQL is the best path here as the ODBC
driver is superior :( PostgreSQL seems to dislike Win32 platforms for
serving. and MYSQL is fcked at Views/locking etc but rocking on speed.).
Oh yeah. For the foxpro stuff. If it works thru ODBC , just use fox for
back and access for front. Too easy.

Finally , 

> Okay.
> 
> MS Access is convenient for training people in basic relational database 
> principles, and in basic SQL, and Oracle is useful for teaching a bit 
> further, as is done at Murdoch.
> 
> If you have learnt Oracle at Murdoch, it could be worth investigating 
> PostgreSQL. There is, or was, an online book about PostgreSQL, which we 
> downloaded and printed. Out of interest, PostgreSQL was the predecessor 
> of Postgres, which (I believe) was the predecessor of Ingres (I may be 
> wrong with the Ingres connection).
> 
> If you have time, sometime, it could be worth looking at, and having a 
> play with, the ADABAS database that comes with Star Office 5.2, if you 
> have (or get) a copy of Star Office 5.2. It could be useful for a single 
> user, workstation solution. I am aware of it, but have not done anything 
> much with it.
> 
> Both the pgaccess for PostgreSQL, and ADABAS, have a kind of MS ACCESS 
> like interface (the GUI bit for setting up tables, etc)
> 
> Oh, and, MS Access is apparently useful for things other than being a 
> backend database. Anne had one job, where she created an MS Access front 
> end, for an Informix backend.
> 
> Foxpro was (from memory) a Borland product, then MS bought it from 
> Borland, and incorporated Foxpro into Visual Studio 6. We had a look at 
> it, for a conversion of a database that we had written, that needs 
> rewriting, but, whilst Foxpro has a better backend than Access, it 
> doesn't have what we wanted for a front end. I think the project would 
> be better rewritten in Perl/PostgreSQL, but that is something that we 
> have to decide.
> 
> Oh, and, out of interest, Access is not just limited to being a single 
> user, workstation DBMS. From memory, Eve Voysey told me that she had an 
> Access system servicing 200 users. It was a while ago when she told me 
> about it, so I may be slightly wrong in that. But, Access has lousy 
> locking.
> 
> -- 
> Bret Busby
> Armadale
> West Australia
> ..............
> 
> "So once you do know what the question actually is,
>  you'll know what the answer means."
> - Deep Thought,
>   Chapter 28 of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
> - Douglas Adams, 1988
> ....................................................
>