From: Danny Lieberman (dannyl_at_nonexisting.hamakor.org.il)
Date: Mon 24 Jan 2005 - 09:55:13 IST
Tazahi
I've been following this thread and I wanted to shed a different light:
I'm not a Microsoft advocate but lets get the facts straight:
a. MS Access developer is free in Office
b. The Academic licenses for Office are about 30% of the commercial MOLP
which is about 20% of the single unit list price - so it costs peanuts
for the Technion to develop in MS Access
c. MS Access runtime (Jet) is free for unlimited distribution
d. You can use PHP on a Windows server to access the MDB database by
ODBC since there is no limitation to using an MDB in a runtime server
Second of all, with all due respect - this sort of smacks of "i'll bite
off my nose to spite my face" (We dont use Access because ... )
MS Access is a widely used tool,and when your students go out looking
for work they'll have a much better shot at a job with Access than with
Ruby.
Think of it like this - it's a tool and engineering schools like the
Technion are supposed to teach you to find & use tools. If the best
tool for this job is a pocket knife thats the tool
I would expect a Technion grad to use.
;-)
danny
Tzahi Fadida wrote:
>>...On Behalf Of Oded Arbel
>>
>>Tzahi Fadida wrote:
>>
>>
>>
>>>There are several free open-source projects on the web, however from
>>>the looks of it none are comparable to ms access.
>>>
>>><snip>
>>>
>>>Important requirements for the pro bono project:
>>>the tools Must be Free and not only Open Source.
>>>Hebrew interface, hebrew db support.
>>>MUST run also on a winbox.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>Why the requirement to be free (as in beer) ? last time I checked,
>>MS-Access was not free (in either meaning) and to compete
>>with that an
>>open source product only has to give you more value for
>>money, not more
>>value for no money...
>>
>>
>
>You misunderstood me, I don't intend to use ms-access because its
>not free and because one of the new requirement we gave the students
>of the ie faculty at the technion is that they can't use ms-access for
>yearly projects.(or asp starting a semester or two. :)
>The main problem is that the particular gov office is under funded and
>it requested from us to do at least part of the job.
>If it had money, they would have taken an outside contractor.
>There is a legacy ms-access local mdb there that will have to be
>ported (probably using mdb-tools, but its not really important).
>We also want to centrelize all the data feeds into one system
>so it will require us to be able to reach they system from
>all workstations, meaning more access licenses so we striked that
>out right away.
>
>
>
>>If the alternatives are MS-Access or a competing open source product
>>then I do suggest Rekall from The Kompany which is licensed under the
>>GPL but the vendor will only supply binary packages for
>>MS-Windows for a
>>license fee (one can still download the source and build it. Linux
>>binaries as available for free from several sources, some
>>distros even
>>bundle them).
>>Rekall offers MS-Access like form design and supports scripting in
>>python (which is not as good as Ruby but will do ;-).
>>
>>
>
>again, no money.
>I know rekall but they also have legacy word, dos, windows and
>there is little chance of convincing them to move to linux on most
>workstations.
>
>
>
>>I think you need to prioritize - which requirement is more important:
>>'available for no charge' or 'MS-Access feature
>>completeness'. I don't
>>
>>
>
>no charge since otherwise there is no project.
>
>
>
>>think they coincide currently (at least until Kexi is stable, which
>>would take some time), and as a result, if the former is more
>>important
>>then I suggest you drop the other requirement and teach your
>>students to
>>program using some kind of easy scripting language. Ruby is a
>>good idea,
>>but also PHP.
>>
>>
>
>I meant that I plan to use both. since we will also need some
>middle tier logic and maybe some fancy gui additions.
>Are there alternatives to ruby rails? btw, I don't consider
>php an alternative at the same level, maybe to ruby but
>not to ruby rails which is all about
>"less software and convention over configuration"
>i.e. they don't have to know the programming underlayers
>just create xml like files and fancy htmls.
>http://www.onlamp.com/pub/a/onlamp/2005/01/20/rails.html?page=1
>
>Does anyone have experience with rails and can share?
>
>
>
>>--
>>Oded
>>
>>::..
>>Excuses are the easiest things to manufacture, and the
>>hardest things to sell.
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>
>
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-- Danny Lieberman Visit us at http://www.software.co.il Office + 972 8 970-1485 Cell + 972 54 447-1114 ================================================================= To unsubscribe, send mail to linux-il-request_at_linux.org.il with the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command echo unsubscribe | mail linux-il-request_at_linux.org.il
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