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Microsoft Access is this. It was quite popular in its heyday, but as time wore on, it turned out that people eventually either want scalable, real, full-blown d

Microsoft Access is this. It was quite popular in its heyday, but as time wore on, it turned out that people eventually either want scalable, real, full-blown databases, or infinitely flexible spreadsheets. Anything built with a product in that grey area in between will eventually want to go one way or the other.

ghaff 4y ago
We've seen the same phenomenon in word processing/desktop publishing. We've mostly seen people coalesce around Microsoft Word and its online counterpart/competitors or go full-on desktop publishing with InDesign. People have mostly moved away from lightweight desktop publishing programs for newsletters and the like.
zozbot234 4y ago
Is SQLite a "scalable, real, full-blown database"? That's the scale that Access is going for. (Though it also totally works as a pure frontend to a "real" database connection.)
- randomdata 4y ago
  SQLite can be used to help build a "scalable, real, full-blown database" application. JET, the SQLite-like engine used by Access, could theoretically be used in the same way. But the topic here is about GUIs which serve the middle-ground between the "scalable, real, full-blown database" applications and the lowly spreadsheet. The SQLite project offers nothing that is comparable to Access.
jiggawatts 4y ago
Access had the capability to use a full-blown SQL Server back end, while retaining 90% of the flexibility on the front end. For example, adding a column in Access would add a column in the database table! We can have our cake and eat it too. The mistake with Access was that instead of keeping a deathgrip on its legacy file-based roots, it ought to have "grown up" and become a web-native HTML5 app that uses SQL Server back-ends as the only option. I still think there's a huge market for something like this.
- gigatexal 4y ago
  Airtable does this, no? There’s just no SQL part. But they got the UI part down.
  - pbronez 4y ago
    I’m so annoyed there’s no SQL API for Airtable… even if it was read only.
genman 4y ago
There were two problems with Access - it looked too complicated and it looked ugly. It is still available even in the 365 package but I can't remember when I used it last time. It was long time ago.

ghaff 4y ago

We've seen the same phenomenon in word processing/desktop publishing. We've mostly seen people coalesce around Microsoft Word and its online counterpart/competitors or go full-on desktop publishing with InDesign. People have mostly moved away from lightweight desktop publishing programs for newsletters and the like.

zozbot234 4y ago

Is SQLite a "scalable, real, full-blown database"? That's the scale that Access is going for. (Though it also totally works as a pure frontend to a "real" database connection.)

randomdata 4y ago
SQLite can be used to help build a "scalable, real, full-blown database" application. JET, the SQLite-like engine used by Access, could theoretically be used in the same way. But the topic here is about GUIs which serve the middle-ground between the "scalable, real, full-blown database" applications and the lowly spreadsheet. The SQLite project offers nothing that is comparable to Access.

jiggawatts 4y ago

Access had the capability to use a full-blown SQL Server back end, while retaining 90% of the flexibility on the front end. For example, adding a column in Access would add a column in the database table! We can have our cake and eat it too. The mistake with Access was that instead of keeping a deathgrip on its legacy file-based roots, it ought to have "grown up" and become a web-native HTML5 app that uses SQL Server back-ends as the only option. I still think there's a huge market for something like this.

gigatexal 4y ago
Airtable does this, no? There’s just no SQL part. But they got the UI part down.
- pbronez 4y ago
  I’m so annoyed there’s no SQL API for Airtable… even if it was read only.

genman 4y ago

There were two problems with Access - it looked too complicated and it looked ugly. It is still available even in the 365 package but I can't remember when I used it last time. It was long time ago.