From: nospam@dfs.com   
      
   On 1/28/2026 2:12 AM, Lawrence D’Oliveiro wrote:   
   > On Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:15:11 -0500, DFS wrote:   
   >   
   >> And even then, unless the data is in a db, it's nearly useless. All   
   >> you can do is scroll it up and down on the screen, and you have to   
   >> write a new program every time you want a different view.   
   >   
   > Did you know that LibreOffice Base supports multiple DBMS backends,   
   > including SQLite?   
      
   I did know that.  I knew that some 20 years ago.   
      
      
      
   > Let’s see you use Microsoft Office to match that.   
      
      
   eh?  Access has been ODBC-connective since 1993.  I built lots of   
   corporate Access apps using Oracle, SQL Server, Teradata and DB2   
   backends.  Not only that, but you could connect as many different   
   backends as you wanted to an Access frontend.   
      
   You can even use ODBC to connect one Access database (.mdb, .accdb) to   
   another Access database.   
      
   Last I tried a few years ago, an LO database file wouldn't accept   
   connections (in the form of linked tables) from more than one ODBC   
   datasource at a time.  Hopefully that limitation isn't still in place.   
      
   Not to mention the superior Object Model underpinning MS Office, or the   
   far superior form and report designers and VBA scripting language.   
      
   Another thing I like about Access is, via compilation and various   
   properties you can set at runtime, you can make an Access system look   
   like a standalone Windows app - the user never knows it's Access (unless   
   he knows .mde vs .exe), sees whatever title you want, can't see a   
   database window, can't break into the code or make changes to forms and   
   reports, etc.  It looks very professional.  I deployed a big bunch of them.   
      
   You can't do that with LibreOffice.   
      
   LO just can't compete.  Too many lackadaisacal devs working on the   
   things they want to work on, at their own pace.   
      
   Not that LO won't meet the needs of virtually all non-developers.  It   
   has a boatload of features, and is a nice program for being free of cost.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)