Apple’s FileMaker Pro?
Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
31–40 of 114 posts
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#32Maybe because writing an Access database still requires a programmer, and you can get better value by hiring a PHP programmer to write two pages and three tables.
I think you are right. For soft applications, Excel is a powerful enough database that non-programmers can use. Anything Excel can't do can be done 'easily' by mysql.
I know that I've sat down to learn access (and later LibreOffice Base) but by the time I start into it I just think "there's really no advantage to using this over just mysql and a web page front end" and stop learning.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#33I think a lot of the common use case for things like Access were in storing customer databases - I'd imagine that a lot of applications that previously would have been done in Access are now done in CRM platforms like Salesforce - either because Salesforce and / or partner tools directly provide the functionality, or because you can go a pretty long way defining custom objects and fields.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#34There are quite a few products that attempt to be a web based equivalent of Access. The two that seem to be the closest to me are Google's AppMaker ( https://developers.google.com/appmaker/ ) and Bubble.is ( https://bubble.is/ ). I call these two out because they both allow for coding when the "default path" runs into a wall, and both include more than just forms and tables. However, they both still have warts. Appma…
Dabble was pretty neat, and it was written in Smalltalk, too. I think each user got their own Smalltalk image, and their data was saved directly to the image. I can't remember if I learned that in a video or a post somewhere by Avi Bryant, though. I was really interested in Smalltalk in 2009/2010 and I remember seeing Dabble DB coming up a lot.
Probably this interview: https://www.infoq.com/interviews/bryant-smalltalk-dabbledb
There's a button to view the transcript of the video too.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#35i am workibg on exactly this, but not just an access clone but DDD point and click for the web. Any suggestions?
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#36There are thousands (tens of thousands) of ERP/CRM systems that include an Access clone as a subset.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#37Try Glom (gnome) or Klexi (qt)
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#38Borland Delphi was the modern MS Access clone. Ever have seen how fast you can build an DB app with that? I'm sure the newest version of Delphi is still as good today as the 2001/2003 version at that time ;) On Mac it is Filemaker or not?
The advent of VB (and ultimately .NET) obsoleted the advantages. In modern .NET (and VB since 1998), you can pull a DataGrid onto the canvas, configure the DB parameters in the IDE and are basically done for an intranet data entry UI.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#39Not an MS Access clone, but a good 4GL easy database tool I like is called DataFlex [0] Very easy to use and you can create basic applications without additional programming. Although of course it helps if you know how-to write code. There's an embedded database that you can use out of the box. But you can also use any of the main SQL Database engines. For building commercial applications you have to buy a developers…
That's crazy, I used DataFlex briefly over 30 years ago.
Had no idea it was still going.
Re: Ask HN: Why isn't there a modern MS Access clone?
#40May not be exactly what you're looking for, but take a look at https://www.genexus.com/products/genexus?en [disclaimer: used to work there three lifetimes ago]