Subject: Re: Abisuite database
From: Randy Kramer (rhkramer@fast.net)
Date: Sat Aug 25 2001 - 09:52:47 CDT
NW wrote:
> So all this is leading up to a plea to the developers of Abisuite,
> please don't leave the database at the end of the queue, it is far more
> important than that. Write a good monolithic database for Linux and I
> think that you will be mightily surprised at how popular it will be.
>
> Anyone any comments??
I'm not a developer (more a wannabe), but I like the idea (the reason
for pointing this out is to say that convincing me doesn't do much
good). I think some other things have to go along with it. I'm not
sure what all of those would be, but some of them would include:
- A change in the paradigm users use -- think of the database as the
place to store data, the spreadsheet as a (one) means to display and
manipulate a snapshot of the data. Similarly, an address book and the
content of Power Point slides belong in the database, and are extracted
for particular uses (like a mail merge letter or a Power Point (or
Impress, or whatever) presentation. (I guess mentally I'm slipping over
into including free-format databases (like AskSam) as well as the more
traditional and more structured relational databases in this
discussion.)
- Training and evangelism to create a change in awareness
- Good design to make the user interface very useful and intuitive in
this new paradigm
Aside: A change in the paradigm as described above could do a lot of
good things:
- making more ordinary users aware of the usefulness of a database
- making more ordinary users able to use a database
- as this paradigm catches on, allowing AbiSuite (and Linux) to be the
(a) leader in office suites instead of a follower
Randy Kramer
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