[Kexi] Linux Voice review, Kexi wins in the Databases category

[Swarup]

On 12/14/2015 07:22 AM, Jaroslaw Staniek wrote:
> On 14 December 2015 at 13:13,  <cl at isbd.net> wrote:
>> Jaroslaw Staniek <staniek at kde.org> wrote:
>>> 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.
>>>
>> Yes, that's my pet hate, people using spreadsheets for storing tables
>> of text information.  :-)
>>
> That triggered creation of this chapter of the handbook:
> https://userbase.kde.org/Kexi/Handbook/Introduction_to_Databases/Database_and_Spreadsheet
> Nothing revolutionary and can be further extended :)
>
>>> 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?
>>>
>> 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.
> 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?

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.

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:

1. Ability to create new rows and columns later on, in table view.
2. Ability to rename columns later on.
3. Ability to hide columns and rows in table view.
4. Ability to move columns in table view.
5. Ability to alter the number of characters allowed in a cell after the 
table is made, without losing all the data.
6. Ability to highlight and copy the cells of limited number of rows and 
columns, i.e. a sub-section of the table.

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 version 2.8.5, although I would 
love to be able to upgrade if there were a reasonable way to do so.

Swarup
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kexi/attachments/20151214/5345a781/attachment.html>