BeeBase, a programmable relational database with graphical user interface

Post by wewtyflakes » Wed, Apr 24, 2024, 7:58 PM UTC

cess11 wrote: post #80

zen928 wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The replying comment side stepped the discussion of error messages lacking context that could be easily remedied to be identifiable and the response was "it's in the manual". All error messages meant to be understood by humans should be in the manual at minimum, but what the replyer suggested by ignoring the conversation was "your issue with the error message isn't important because you can figure it out yourself". I…

It's not important because there are many quirks to this software, including a Lisp-like programming language. Learning to use it involves internalising many things that aren't common knowledge, which one has to figure out by trial and error, and the manual. If you are seriously interested in BeeBase you'll be spending hours learning the basics of the Lisp-dialect and GUI toolkit, getting a hangup on that error messa…

Post by jfyi » Wed, Apr 24, 2024, 8:24 PM UTC

dvdkon wrote: post #82

jfyi wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's take a look at how the big boys handle something similar... SELECT * FROM logs WHERE KEY = 'blah' LIMIT 10; /* SQL Error (1064): You have an error in your SQL syntax; check the manual that corresponds to your MariaDB server version for the right syntax to use near 'KEY = 'blah' LIMIT 10' at line 1 */ I think there is some expectation of technical literacy for the use of a database. This would include being able…

Yes, the error messages of modern SQL databases suck. On that note, SQL itself sucks (the two problems might be related). But that's no excuse to not do better. Besides, BeeBase seems more user-focused than MariaDB, presenting itself as a nice GUI tool. "Real developers" might not need good error messages, but they also don't need a GUI and would sooner use some unholy bash-sed-awk-Perl mixture.

Post by wewtyflakes » Wed, Apr 24, 2024, 9:08 PM UTC

cess11 wrote: post #84

wewtyflakes wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And let's say someone makes a patch that implements a new error message that specifies which of the two rules regarding table names has been breached, then what? More complaints about the next quirk? Some other error message? Yes, this is how software development is done, assuming you like your customers.

Who are you referring to? Is it even someone in this thread?

Post by zem » Wed, Apr 24, 2024, 9:43 PM UTC

zokier wrote: post #35

Honestly I think LibreOffice Base (and its brethren) are underappreciated and underdeveloped pieces of software these days. In 80s/90s stuff like dBase and Access seemingly were relatively popular, but that whole category of software seems to have mostly died out which is imho a shame. I suppose Access being somewhat notoriously horrible has something to do with that, suffocating the whole field. Considering how much…

Post by cyanydeez » Wed, Apr 24, 2024, 10:31 PM UTC

hgyjnbdet wrote: post #86

I have to use Access at work. Im wondering if this could be a replacement. Certainly LO Base is not, much as I'd want it to be. I suppose it depends on whether the scripting language can do what vba can, especially with regards to xslx files.