Proposal: Encouraging DB-using applications

[Roberto Alsina]

> On Sunday 21 September 2003 04:11, Roberto Alsina wrote:
>> While Qt has gained in versions 3.x a decent support for the development
>> of applications that require access to databases, it is rare to find a
>> KDE
>> app that uses that support.
>>
>> Why? Because the drivers included with Qt are for databases that require
>> some administration, and thus are not a realistic requirement for a
>> regular user.
>
> Another reason could be : because no KDE application has any need for a
> DB.

I very much doubt that. In fact, I think people are just not writing the
apps because the DB layer is hard to find/use/whatever.

Examples of applications where a DB makes sense:

Recipe app (KRecipes)
Mail/News client (why not?, it makes "search folders" way simpler)
CD/Book/Whatever catalog
Notetaking applications (KJots, KNotes)
RSS aggregator (try handling 300 feeds in a flat file :-)

Yes, all of these can be implememnted by grepping a few text files.
But

a) That doesn't scale
b) That's ugly ;-)
c) That's actually harder!

> I
> can't think of any existing KDE app which would have a use for it.

Not one? I even mentioned one that does use it in my message :-)

> DBs are useful when you need to sort through massive amounts of data in
> various ways. In most cases, given today's machines power, grepping
> through a
> flat text file will be more than enough to satisfy the data-related needs
> of
> an application.
>
> So while I think a nice DB driver could always be useful, I'm afraid that
> it
> will be overused in ways akin to "using a hammer to break an egg".

Please ask your VB-programming friends if having a semi-decent DB
available doesn't help writing apps.

-- 
 ("\''/").__..-''"`-. .         Roberto Alsina
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Imminentizing the eschaton since 1971.