REALbasic: right for this project?

[Richard Altenburg]

On 06-06-2003 09:33, "Ruslan Zasukhin" <sunshine at public.kherson.ua> wrote:
 
>> This makes 4D not so much fun for games and communications (both of them I
>> do in RB now), but when you handle databases it is very good.
> 
> Yes, but I this this is because in 4D integrated with db is
> A) db schema manipulation (e.g. diagrams)
> B) layouts integrated with db schema
> C) reports integrated with db schema
> 
> In REALbasic 
> A) absent
> B) need manual integration in code
> C) absent in Rb, exists as simple third party classes.

So here you are: RB lacks the integration that 4D has. Of course, this is
because 4D is made by just one company.
 
>> When you modify the database in 4D, your program knows it. When you change
>> the type of a field, or its name, the code knows it.
> 
> You mean that this field is automatically renamed in all program?

Yes. The names of tables, fields, layouts, etc. are all dynamic. They are
only for the developer. Internally, 4D uses object id's so that it knows how
to name a table, field or layout in a method. When the names change,
everywhere this object is used will be renamed. That is what integration is
about...
 
> Yes of course, DBMS environment (4D, Access, Sybase) always will be better
> integrated with database then general kind RAD tools like RB or VB.

And I can live with that. But when people are asking for a business advise,
and others tell them to go for MacOS X, Apache, MySQL, RB and some more
stuff, I say: don't! Put 4D on, and you'll have them all in one. For
database apps, there is just no better development environment yet.

> I hope that Valentina Studio will improve Valentina development,
> And so simplify RB+V4RB work.
> 
> By the way, I did think about such simple feature for Vstudio as generation
> of code for example to create db for different languages that support
> Valentina. So you create in Vstudio like in Access or 4D db schema, then you
> say: generate for C++, Java, Lingo, RB, ... Code to create this db.

This is nice. It is always better to visually create your schema, instead of
doing it in code. This is quite easy to make, so why not? Remember that 4D
also creates relations by letting you draw lines from one table to the
other. Vstudio could maybe create the corresponding ObjectPtr fields and so
on...

But still, the most important aspect would be to integrate the language with
the database engine. When you have a selection (record set, cursor), make
sure you have objects that can show them to the user (dynamic listbox, for
example), layouts to modify the data in it, and layouts to print the data.
Now it is hard work in RB to make all this, and that is a shame. I am not
lazy, but when you say that RB + Valentina is not much different from 4D,
someone should fill in these gaps for me and other developers.

Well, good luck, thanks for your time, and goodbye!