Re: Robert -- Re: OT: End Note ?

[Harry Binswanger hb@xxxxxxxx]

Re Filemaker vs. SQL programs:
My wife worked with SQL (as a programming consultant to a bank) about 10
years ago. She doesn't know what's available now, but she say that that
time, all SQL things had to be hand-coded, whereas Filemaker is a little
higher-level, providing modules for assembling nice displays and reports.
Filemaker is programmable, too, but the less expensive version allows you
only to pick code elements to drop in, rather than typing in lines of code.
So the nice thing about Filemaker is that you can get up and running
quickly--really quickly--with virtually no debugging required.
I guess it's the perennial trade-off between the power and flexibility of
hand-coding vs. the ease and speed of higher-level, "dumb-user-friendly"
software.
> I'm just getting started with Filemaker Pro, and (to my limited
knowledge) it's good.
> Well, as long as we're recommending OT software, my view is, why
> go fishing? Use an SQL database. Millions of people use them,
> there's a huge community of users with vast support resources,
> top-notch ones like MySQL and PostgreSQL are free, they're
> totally cross-platform (isn't Filemaker the old Claris/Apple
> product?), they're debugged because in use for years and years,
> they all work with PHP, etc etc.
>
> -----------------------------
> Robert Holmgren
> holmgren@xxxxxxxx
> -----------------------------


Harry Binswanger
hb@xxxxxxxx