Hello from a Filemaker renegade

[Andre Garzia]

On Apr 6, 2004, at 5:11 AM, Norman Winn wrote:

> Here are some questions:
>
> 1. The RR v RB comparison article is way out of date but suggests RB 
> may be the best choice for heavy db work. Is this so?

Hi Norman,

I think I can answer a couple questions for I worked with both 
solutions and with DBs.  The two solutions are able to use many DBs, 
but I should point some advantages of Rev here:
* A simple and elegant API, you use the same API no matter what the 
RDBMS you're using, this is cool for you can migrate your db from MySQL 
to Valentina and change nothing of your code (except the part on 
OpenConnection where you will put valentina instead of MySQL). There's 
no fuss on record pointers and strange things that REALBasic inherited 
from those old RAD tools (like delphi, VB and so on...)
* Database Query Builder, if you didn't look for the documentation on 
this then PLEASE LOOK. It's a very fast way to code DB solutions and 
with the aid of some 'undocumented' functions (for handling query 
changes at runtime, and conection parameters at runtime) you can code 
complete DB solutions with minimal coding. Database Query Builder will 
take care of the query, the conection and glueing data to controls. 
There's nothing like this for RB.



>
> 2. I don't see much written on building front-ends to SQL in RR. Are 
> they out there? Are there any tutorials on this? Is there a connection 
> tutorial?

That's pretty easy, at my homepage (http://www.soapdog.org) under 
Projects there's a project called the DataJR, it's mainly a collections 
of DB and logic that end up being a complete contact management, 
project management and intranet solution. Heavy use of SQL, Database 
Query Builder and undocumented goodies. Code cannot be released to 
public yet for I am under contract but I'll work a public version very 
soon.


>
> 3. Are there functions, plug-ins, tool-sets to handle complex 
> relationships, entity diagrams, data validation?

Can't help on that for I do not understand what you're meaning... =/

>
> 4. Icing on the cake? Has anyone already handled converting and 
> documented it?

I think I can cookup a little tutorial example for the next week, what 
about it?

Cheers
Andre


>
>
> Thank you for attention and for a lively, open forum,
>
> Norman Winn
>
>
-- 
Andre Alves Garzia ð 2004 ð BRAZIL
http://studio.soapdog.org