Many Cards Versus One Card and a List Field

[Randall Lee Reetz]

Does rev offer a table object?

-----Original Message-----
From: "Peter Alcibiades" <palcibiades-first at yahoo.co.uk>
To: "How to use Revolution" <use-revolution at lists.runrev.com>
Sent: 1/15/2008 12:11 AM
Subject: Many Cards Versus One Card and a List Field

Maybe I don't understand the question (does happen!) but isn't the answer 
something like this.

1)  Once data storage gets serious, more than a few thousand records, Rev 
alone is not what to do it in.  If you want to do the rest of the app in Rev, 
you have to add a real database.  This means sqlite, mysql (if you need multi 
user and networked), Valentina, whatever.
  
The issue is not one card versus many, the issue is tab delimited fields 
versus real databases.  

2)  If data storage retrieval and reports is the primary or only need, its 
incredibly much quicker to do that sort of thing to some level in Filemaker, 
but it may not come for your OS and has other limitations.  But you do get 
point and click relational database and report construction.  

This is a real issue about Rev + sqlite, but its also an issue about 
alternatives to Rev + sqlite.

3)  Even if you can live with tab delimited files for storage, getting reports 
out of them in Rev is not much fun  So you have to add Quartam.  Or Perl or 
Awk.  This too is much easier and quicker in FM.  But the same comment applies 
to the alternatives to Rev. 

Is there a gui package  (except the database packages with end user 
pretensions like FM) that does data storage and retrieval and reporting much 
better than Rev?  Most seem to be a lot worse.  Python for instance, I think 
you have to use a real database for just about any storage.  Nothing is 
perfect.

This is my own case:  15-20k records of sales during the fiscal year.  I 
accumulate them (with some trepidation) into an external tab delimited text 
file.  Then we need to go through and extract sales by product by month for 
some 200+ items.  After a prolonged meditation on switch, if and repeat, and 
the prospect of creating a 200 x 12 matrix of fields with each one 
individually named and scripted, I broke out "Effective Awk Programming".  

Its like reaching for a plane, after trying to get a smooth finish with a 
chisel.  But chisels have their uses too, and are often the right tool for 
the job.  Don't try doing a mortise with a plane!

Well, please correct if this is not right.


Peter

  



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