[Techtalk] Leaving Win$ for linux.
Ian Balchin
aesop at fables.co.za
Mon Dec 17 10:20:44 UTC 2007
Hi to all who made response to my initial email.
Sorry, but that was not a good time to start a complex discussion and
I apologise for my dissappearing act. I own a bookshop and one of our
main things is books for university students. End of the academic
year coincided here and we were inundated with students and used
books and will soon at end of Jan be handling this again for the
start of the new year.
That aside, there were some good suggestions. I'll certainly
experiment with Wine and Pegasus, but am not sure that I agree in
principle with the principle involved. If it is easy, reliable,
seamless, why not? I suppose something native would be preferred. In
my tiny eye I see M$ eventually killing Pegasus. So I'll just have to
take what is on offer in the linux world when I get there. Not a
major train-smash really.
On the database side I now realise that I must concentrate on finding
some sort of front end to any on the database offerings that at my
level will probably all be found more than competant. So interbase as
noted, firebird seems good too - and I found a 'datapump' that will
take my pdox tables and structures and recreate them in Firebird.
I don't see an all in one equivalent to Paradox with its all in one
approach of database, GUI front for creation of tables, reports,
forms, etc. plus an integrated object-based language, the terminology
on most of these database sites is beyond me in most cases and maybe
one has to go to the more commercial side of linux to find a
solution.
I think I have a long road ahead finding a path to where I need to
go, but this small exercise with suggestions made and my bit of
effort put in reviewing has moved me forward a bit and clarified
focus.
Rudy, you are right in that there is little support from Corel.
Development of Paradox has stopped, and at some time it is likely to
fail to run under some new M$ operating system as they pass it the
kiss of death. Even the pdox newsgroup acknowledges this and most if
not all Paradox developers have moved on to other pastures. So I am
under a life sentence even if not immediate.
thanks to all
Anne
Your 30 October 2007 email from Rudy Zijlstra said thus::
> Anne,
>
> Not an easy one...
>
> Ian Balchin wrote:
> > hi, all,
> >
> > Over the years I have played with linux a lot. It is on my laptop, I
> > write perl scripts in it to massage text databases, and use it for
> > quite a bit of personal email, browsing, etc. nothing too serious I
> > guess.
> >
> > The news that win2000 will not be supported after the end of this
> > year is another reminder of the treadmill that we are on. If I have a
> > crash and have to reinstall win2000 in 2008 clearly this will be full
> > of all the loopholes and security breaches that have been fixed by
> > patch after patch for the past years. Even the patches on the patches
> > must be patched by now. Clearly M$ is looking to relieve me of more
> > of my precious third-world resources to stay with it.
> >
> had missed this one. Good to know though.
> > I have long thought of a total move to linux, which of course is not
> > likely to be painless in itself. With some experience behind me I now
> > have two major hurdles that prevent me from moving.
> >
> > First is that I love Pegasus Mail, having used it since the old DOS
> > days. I don't see any alternative to the power and features of
> > Pegasus in the linux world, and if you haven't used it then don't
> > knock it please. Am I missing something out, and I am not keen to go
> > to an OE lookalike, Pegaus has this beat in looks, performance, and
> > features. I'm not going to use mutt and Ximian doesn't look very
> > exciting although I haven't really looked at the latest offering. For
> > all of linux's heritage, the email situation looks thin. So any
> > comments there.
> >
>
> As you state further down, this is likely going to be a compromise.
> There are many options, and likely after a while you will be able to
> find a compromise that suits you. Not knowing pegasus, i am not going to
> comment on the options.
> > The second hurdle is that I have a lot of database stuff developed
> > over the years in Paradox, hours of my coding is sitting there. I
> > know that there are solid databases available, but what about the
> > front end, I rarely see mention of those, and Paradox provides a
> > complete development environment with its own language ObjectPal. I
> > don't want to have to start from ground zero all over again coding
> > access in perl. I have staff who need something similar to what they
> > are used to. Again, comments from those who have had experience with
> > Paradox development would be welcomed. Making forms, reports,
> > queries, Pdox made this as easy as it could be for a computer
> > literate user who did not necessarily need to be a computer fundi
> > with $ prompts shining out of his eyes..
> >
> > These two hurdles prevent a complete move to linux. the first may be
> > a matter of compromise, but the second is a matter of pure business.
> > No Paradox, no business.
> >
> >
>
> Now this is indeed the real hurdle, as even on MS Paradox is not really
> supported anymore. Unless as part of Corel Office. From what i have been
> able to trace, it became part of that. Have not been able to trace it
> back in the office suit though (can be my stupidity :) )
>
> You might want to investigate a combination solution though. Interbase
> from Borland - which also runs on linux - should support Paradox
> databases, and combined with Lazarus
> (http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/) that might be a solution.
>
> There are likely other options, but not knowing how you are using
> paradox, not the complexity of the applications you have build, its
> difficult to come up with alternatives.
>
> For example there exist many frontends to mySQL, which could be a
> solution, although it would mean a porting effort. The latest version of
> openoffice also integrates a database frontend, with a simple embedded
> database. I have not played with it, so do not know powerfull it is.
>
> Are you using Paradox in multiuser environment? That is certainly a
> factor to take into account.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Rudy
>
> Skype: grumpydevil(-h)
> grumpydevil_h is my home skype account, grumpydevil the one on my work
> laptop that travels with me :)
> > Regards
> > Anne--
> > Fables Bookshop (Proprietor: Ian Balchin) Est. 1990
> > 119 High Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa.
> > Tel/Fax: Shop +27-(0)46-636-1525
> > Tel: Home office: +27-(0)46-622-2474
> > cell:
> > Skype: fablesbooks (subject to my being at the computer station).
> > http://www.fables.co.za/
> > subscribe to our email africana catalogue:
> > http://lists.imaginet.co.za/mailman/listinfo/fables-list
> > email: aesop at fables.co.za
> > ici on parle francais
> > Founder member Southern African Book Dealers Association
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
>
>
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--
Fables Bookshop (Proprietor: Ian Balchin) Est. 1990
119 High Street, Grahamstown, 6139, South Africa.
Tel/Fax: Shop +27-(0)46-636-1525
Tel: Home office: +27-(0)46-622-2474
cell:
Skype: fablesbooks (subject to my being at the computer station).
http://www.fables.co.za/
subscribe to our email africana catalogue:
http://lists.imaginet.co.za/mailman/listinfo/fables-list
email: aesop at fables.co.za
ici on parle francais
Founder member Southern African Book Dealers Association
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