[Techtalk] MS Access --> mysql

[Dan Richter]

I'm not very familiar with MySQL, so I will only answer the fourth question:

>4.      Is msql relatively close to ms access in behaviour?

Access has a cute GUI. MySQL by itself is entirely command-line, though the 
popular PHPMyAdmin provides an interface via a web browser, which is a lot 
easier than typing an SQL statement everytime you want a piece of information.

Access is not only a database: it is a complete application development 
system. You can create forms to input the data and reports to print data. 
MySQL is just a data storage system: you have to build some kind of program 
on top of it using another language (such as PHP, as is the case of 
PHPMyAdmin).

If you use Access only as a backend database server, there's a good chance 
that you can switch to some other database (e.g., MySQL) with a minimum of 
trouble. Databases are supposed to be interchangeable; that's the point of 
SQL. But if you have a complete application written in Access, complete 
with user interface, you can't port the code. You either use Access, or you 
rewrite the application.

========== Dan Richter ============== mailto:Dan at wimba.com ===========
    I'm actually hoping that [Linux] won't take more than 25 or 30%
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