<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=utf-8" http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(0, 0,
0);" bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
On 12/14/2015 07:22 AM, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:<br>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAOj7QQ3qHqyCBhwtheQ-oE9q-hPYEzLLy1kYNL+khLynxBXM4Q@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<pre wrap="">On 14 December 2015 at 13:13, <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:cl@isbd.net"><cl@isbd.net></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">Jaroslaw Staniek <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:staniek@kde.org"><staniek@kde.org></a> wrote:
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
The exclusive group or RAD users is not small but severely distributed
so quite hard to reach. Misused spreadsheets for example are
competitors too. There's always room for IT projects without any
reasonable budget assigned.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">Yes, that's my pet hate, people using spreadsheets for storing tables
of text information. :-)
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
That triggered creation of this chapter of the handbook:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://userbase.kde.org/Kexi/Handbook/Introduction_to_Databases/Database_and_Spreadsheet">https://userbase.kde.org/Kexi/Handbook/Introduction_to_Databases/Database_and_Spreadsheet</a>
Nothing revolutionary and can be further extended :)
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">
</pre>
<blockquote type="cite">
<pre wrap="">PS: And I am unsure why would the LV claim there's no client-server
architecture in such RAD tools if all database engines (but SQLite)
have always been client-server. Maybe it's about the app and GUI on
the server side?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">A good, easy to use front-end (like Kexi may become or MS Access sort
of is) would encourage more use of databases.
I've been searching for a decent replacement for MS Access for ages
and still haven't found one.
My fundamental requirement is soemthing like Access' table view that
allows very simple creation and updating of a table. I've yet to find
anything.
</pre>
</blockquote>
<pre wrap="">
Yes, sometimes I am looking into ways to make Kexi even simpler to
use, so if user wants it - it can be in the middle between a
spreadsheet and a db creation app. Ad-hoc creating table designs
(while entering the data) is one of the things, quite hard to
implement though. Interesting, after the idea came MSA (maybe 2003?)
added similar feature.
But before it's reality we probably need to get reliable alter-table
feature to work.
What exact features of simple table creation do you mean?
</pre>
</blockquote>
<br>
I feel this middle ground between a spreadsheet and a db creation
app is incredibly important and will increase the value and use of
Kexi among the general linux user base exponentially. My estimation
is the the majority of potential Kexi users will be wanting it for
this feature. That is what a great number of Access users use Access
for. These people are not terribly technically inclined, and like
the table format of Access better than a spreadsheet format, for
their purpose of storing text-based data. I am one such person, and
as a Linux user have been using Kexi for this middle ground for
several users-- although frankly it is far from satisfactory
compared with Access, due to lack of ability to alter the
configuration or appearance of a table after it has been created.<br>
<br>
So in short, I agree with you Chris, that for this middle ground
between a spreadsheet and a db creation app, what I think you mean
by the alter-table feature, is more important than the simple table
creation. Going into data view to make the initial table is no big
deal. But after the table is made, then on the fly the following
features are I think critically imporant:<br>
<br>
1. Ability to create new rows and columns later on, in table view.<br>
2. Ability to rename columns later on.<br>
3. Ability to hide columns and rows in table view.<br>
4. Ability to move columns in table view.<br>
5. Ability to alter the number of characters allowed in a cell after
the table is made, without losing all the data. <br>
6. Ability to highlight and copy the cells of limited number of rows
and columns, i.e. a sub-section of the table.<br>
<br>
Some of these features may have already been implemented in your
later versions, as in Ubuntu I cannot upgrade to later versions
(fixing this is also incredibly needed). I am running
<meta name="qrichtext" content="1">
version 2.8.5, although I would love to be able to upgrade if there
were a reasonable way to do so.<br>
<br>
Swarup<br>
</body>
</html>