So… What would be good software to design the front end app under Windows? Visual Studio would probably be out as well, as it costs money, yes? Is there an open source front end? I am familiar with PHP but again, that has a browser interface. Ideally, this would be something that would launch as an app.
Whine whine whine, Why don't people use open source software?!? Because it sucks moldy donkey balls.
A favor, in that case all previous opinions are chucked into the bin.
I wonder if we have real communication.
For the single computer you can embed mysql into an aplication …
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.1/en/libmysqld-example.html
“easy” enough to build a client install it on 1 computer and install the database on that same computer.
Sqlite might be of interest as well, but I only see c/c++ API’s and nothing for windows beyond downloads and TCL stuff.
http://www.sqlite.org/docs.html
Meflin
Visual Studio Express : ( no cost but I do not know the license for use in building commercial apps)
MySql Work Bench
http://wb.mysql.com/
QT
http://qt.nokia.com/products
I should also mention here that building database apps is not what I do, I just work with some people who do. I also have no idea what you are familiar with, the exact job ect.
Also OpenOffice has databse connectors … no idea how well they work or where.
Meflin
Huh. Is docx that bad? Back before I had like a bunch of copies of Microsoft Office (people give me their old ones), I used OpenOffice a lot, and the only thing I had trouble with was Database applications, for which I used either access 97 or the free educational copy I got for Access 2003 I got for free at college (through MSDNAA).
I used the database connecters in OpenOffice, and they did plain reading and updating tables fine. But everything was imported as a table, which meant editing anything else was impossible.
For single-user local DBs, forget postgresql. I’d recommend sqlite again, but really the choice is which you can get integrated easiest, which depends on what your skills are.
For true “open source” windows development, I’d go with SharpDevelop. It’s got almost all the features of Visual Studio that I use. (No WPF designer, but Visual Studio’s is a buggy POS anyway, so perhaps best they don’t try). The Windows forms designer looks okay, but I don’t really use it. I just tried, and it’s got all the standard functionality.
The more important question is what kinds of stuff can you do, as that’s going to make the most difference to what to use.
Most of you are missing Stan’s point. He doesn’t want a database, he wants an Access-like frontend to a database. He wants to create a nice, standalone program that has that slick, Access-like user interface with convenient forms and reports that a non-technical user can use to enter records and create something that looks nice coming out of a printer.
I’m sorry, Stan, but you’re fucked. There is nothing comparable to Access in the OSS world except for Base, and it’s the back of Joe Biden’s balls. MySQL is a more than competent RDBMS, but it offers nothing like what you need, and OSS web-based alternatives for forms and reports systems are even worse.
I could be wrong–it’s been a couple years since I worked with Access in the way Stan’s talking about and looked at alternatives. But I doubt it. Making things easy and slick for the non-technical is just something that OSS sucks at.
Your only alternative that I can think of is to take the OSS equivalent of Visual Basic (e.g., wxPython, or tkinter) and build the interface out and tie it to a portable engine like sqlite. That’ll give you redistributability and something almost as convenient as Access for the interface your users need, if you’re good with the scripting language chosen.
Actually, after reading Meflin’s post, he makes a good point: You can use Visual Basic .NET itself for free in Visual Studio Express, and (I think) use the embeddable free version of SQL Server Desktop Engine to make a standalone app.
Wowsers. You’d think there would be a huge demand for this, and that there would be something open source that would fill that need. So, how about it, open source proselytizers? Are you admitting that the EEEEVIL Microsoft does something you cant? 
I guess that Access it is, or the client can go suck a toe. As I said, it is a favor, and on spec if anything comes of it.
And, Hansel, that is EXACTLY what I need. Access is simply amazing in that in a day or two, I can whip up a custom app that does exactly what the user needs. It is the ultimate in RAD, Rapid Application Development, and I am surprised that there is nothing in the open source universe to compare to it. Sad. :rolleyes:
I will look into this. Thanks.
I always knew my guidance conselor wasnt telling me about all my jobs choices. Now I am angry.
I use Linux, don’t have Windows even installed on my machine, but OpenOffice.org is a piece of shit. It always makes me laugh when idiots try telling me that it is a competitor to MS Office. Either they’ve never used MS Office, or they have, but could have used a text editor, anyway, to achieve what they were doing.
The problem isn’t with open source software, it’s with OO.
Not really. The closest you can get is using C# or VB.net on Mono with ADO.net and MonoDevelop as the IDE, or use Java and the masses of DB access libraries that are available there.
WAG, but there probably isn’t great demand for such a tool because traditionally the VBA scripting available in the Office line of products has been used as a virus vector.
I am not sure how a standalone app could transmit a virus, it would have no interaction with the internet or anything else. As Hansel said, it is merely a front end for a database, or actually it would use a database to simplify the data structures normally associated with an application.
Heck, for all I know, there is something out there already that we could use, off the shelf. I would be open to suggesting that. If not, it is something that could find a wide audience, as it is of general utility. I am just sick of the manager procrastinating on scheduling employee hours, and all my fellow employees are sick of not knowing when we will be on shift or not.
I imagine the app with a table that will set staffing levels for each hour of each day of the week, and allow the manager to assign shifts, and let him easily make sure that each associate gets enough hours, and that no associate runs into overtime. Currently the poor bastard is shuffling through spreadsheets for each day’s work assignments, and I had an “Ahaa” moment where I realized that a database app could make things much simpler.
Anyone know of something that will do this?
Yeah, I used to think that I liked Open Office, but that was just for making stupidly simple documents. Then when it came to things like trying to work at home using complex Word documents, making tracked-changes comments without screwing up anyone else’s comment formatting, and then trying to resubmit it in Word format again? Yeah, right. I ended up spending a measly $25 to get downloadable + DVD MS Office Enterprise 2007 for my home laptop, via a deal that my workplace has with Microsoft.
Well, perhaps your standalone application is immune to viruses, but allowing scripting of Office applications quickly becomes a security nightmare. The VBA development that I remember doing in Access involved designing a form within the application and attaching VBA event handlers to buttons and other controls. Further, you could control other Office applications (and even make system calls (?)) from within the VBA code, IIRC.
There’s a simple method for solving this problem: require students to send you PDFs, a format which nearly all office software can export to. I marked a load of coursework this week with the requirement that all submissions were PDFs. -5% for every .doc or Open Office file submitted.
Yep, there is hardly a doubt. Microsoft has won the app wars. They are now the only game in town when it comes to word processing and spreadsheets. Is there still a Word Perfect? Ami Pro? I don’t think so. Lotus 123 is history as far as I know. Even in the database arena, where is Paradox? Fox? R:Base? Even the one time King, d:Base committed suicide with version 4.
So, Microsoft is all that is left standing, as far as I can tell. Kinda sad, but at least they try to do a good job and make a nice product.
Seems like the market could use a shake up.
If your guidance counselor knew anything about career choices, he wouldn’t be a loser guidance counselor. And if he saw your spelling, he should have told you about the basement/cheetos option! I keed! Funny post, compadre!
Yeah, but that would probably disqaulifi me for the even better beer and cheetos career path.
Lotus 1-2-3 is so much of a dog that I installed OpenOffice for my dad and converted over all his spreadsheets to OO Calc, and he loves it.
Actually, Lotus is at least freely available, if not open source these days. http://www-01.ibm.com/software/lotus/products/symphony/
No database module, though.
On the main thrust of your rant, yeah, open source desktop software continues to be over a decade behind the only remaining major commercial player in all respects. Which is a crying shame, given how ridiculously good open source server software is.
Clears throat Link?