4 ms·
I've had similar thoughts in the past. Databases are very machine-friendly, but too static and inflexible to match the usability of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets a
by Ajedi32 5y ago
I've had similar thoughts in the past. Databases are very machine-friendly, but too static and inflexible to match the usability of spreadsheets. Spreadsheets are extremely user-friendly, but too inconsistent and unconstrained to be efficient for programmatic access.
It seems like there should be a way to combine the two. Maybe a minimal set of optional constraints (like a separation between data and code) like you proposed would be a good starting point. Make tables a first-class citizen backed by an embedded SQLite database (or something similar); let users write real SQL to query tables in formulas, maybe update the file format a bit to make it easier for programs to parse and access concurrently. Could be an interesting project...
- jandrese 5y agoIsn't this what FileMaker Pro is all about?
- reidjs 5y agoYep! I personally like Airtable as well, slightly better UX (but expensive for large teams)
- _jal 5y agoHonestly, what's missing is a GUI builder for Postgres that non-programmers can use. Others have mentioned Filemaker and Access, and I think that's exactly right - non-programmers can understand datatypes, that's not the issue. The issue is a UI they can use and (more importantly) iterate on themselves. One of the major strengths of spreadsheets is "touchability" - your stuff is right there. Psql is the opposite - nothing is visible without the right incantation, and non-programmers can't do much about that.
- andrew_jef 5y agoI've read that nocodb is aiming to solve the issue that you mentioned https://www.nocodb.com/ https://www.nocodb.com/