| Subject | Re: [firebird-support] Re: How does a Mac OS user get started? |
|---|---|
| Author | Karen Denise |
| Post date | 2018-09-03T02:00:27Z |
Steve and Mark,
Thank you both. I think I will go with the Firebird embedded database in LibreOffice for now, as that does seem simpler.
I will ask other, more specific questions as I have them.
And I will take a look at that O'Reilly book. I'm embarrassed to admit I hadn't realized how complex this all was. I had thought that since these types of programs are offered in office suites such as LibreOffice that they wouldn't be too much more complicated to learn than spreadsheets. It seems that is not the case, to put it mildly.
Karen
On Friday, August 24, 2018 2:26 AM, "Mark Rotteveel mark@... [firebird-support]" <firebird-support@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
On 23-8-2018 20:47, karen_denise@... [firebird-support] wrote:
>
>
> Steve,
>
> Thank you for your response. I have asked a couple of more specific
> questions (one of which you have already responded to).
>
> I am not an experienced database programmer, but rather a long-time
> spreadsheet user who recently discovered the wonder of databases and how
> much easier it can be to get the answers you want from a database rather
> than a spreadsheet.
>
> I have mostly been using the LibreOffice Base's embedded HSQLDB. I
> barely know any SQL at all, to be honest. I mostly use the GUI.
>
> My reason for attempting to use Firebird is that LO is transitioning to
> an embedded Firebird database, which is still, as I understand, fairly
> buggy. A knowledgable person on their forum suggested I try the Firebird
> 3 Server. And here I am.
As far as I'm aware, it is pretty stable, it is still experimental
because the HSQLDB to Firebird migration tooling was just recently
completed and now they are waiting for feedback on that.
If you want to try out Firebird 3 embedded in LibreOffice base, then it
might be advisable to enable experimental features in the LibreOffice
settings (under LibreOffice, Advanced option 'Enable experimental
features'), this will then enable Firebird Embedded in the database
wizard. This is probably simpler and more familiar than going all out
with having to get up to speed how Firebird commandline tools work.
> All I really want to do with Firebird is to do whatever setup is
> important (e.g. changing the sysdba password), and then create some new
> databases with Firebird and connect them with one of the drivers to LO.
> I plan on, hopefully, using LO for my actual database setup and use
> beyond the simple creation stage.
If you just want to create a database to use it from LibreOffice base,
then using the Firebird Embedded experimental feature is probably a lot
simpler, because connecting to an existing Firebird database is more
hassle: you would still need to enable experimental features so you can
open the Firebird database as an external file, or you need to install
Java and Jaybird (the Firebird JDBC driver) to open it using the JDBC
support.
Mark
--
Mark Rotteveel