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"every time you use sql server for more than crud then you are married to sql serve"
And that is still absolutism. Which in practical programming does not work.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: I have long sought a project to show off my ideas about implementing an SQL-based application which can be configured to use any one of a number of supported ADO.net providers.
Seems like a better demonstration would be to use a persistent store which is not a SQL Server variant. Such as MySQL.
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Once I have support for two, adding more should be easy.
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Since moving to .NET in 2003, we've been using SQL Server (free edition) and have had *VERY* few problems with it, even in multi-user scenarios.
There are moments, however, when a simple database would suffice, and for these programs we use SQLite. No previous installation required and usable on mobile platforms. I have, however, had several database corruptions (3 or 4 in the last 5 years or so).
Horses for courses!
If you can install SQL Server, I'd go with that, but for mobile platforms of data transfer using a single file, SQLite is a great alternative.
Hope this helps!
Martin.
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Firebird has both a server-side configuration as well as an embedded on. However, it is a rather difficult database to use at times due to what I perceive as idiosyncrasies.
See my 2018 piece on how to work around Firebird's quirks... https://blackfalconsoftware.com/2018/05/11/the-firebird-database-engine-the-frustrations-of-the-long-distance-database-application-developer/
Your other option is to use the excellent SQLite Database Engine.
As it regards SQL Server Compact Edition (CE), I always thought that Microsoft made a serious mistake in dropping support for it.
Their replacement of it with LocalDB has never made any sense to me...
Steve Naidamast
Sr. Software Engineer
Black Falcon Software, Inc.
blackfalconsoftware@outlook.com
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Steve Naidamast wrote: made a serious mistake in dropping support for it. Their replacement of it with LocalDB has never made any sense to me
Yeah, I do not see LocalDB as a replacement for Compact.
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I can that happening, having the app on a flash drive, plug it in, but have the app just use a cloud database service instead. AWS will give you a year free if you sign up a personal account for learning, and the monthly fee may not be that expensive after the year is over. But consider how much you can learn, and how awesome your flash drive app can be, by using a cloud database provider. Plus you can build in other cloud services as well. There are many choices of database technologies available to choose from, and lots of current support for them.
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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NO! Not cloud FFS! No reliance on a network connection either.
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Oh....
Tin Foil hat stuff, sounds cool!
Reminds me of that movie "Enemy of the State"
SQLite, I don't like it, but could like it if I want to keep secrets.
That's something that could be monetized.
If it ain't broke don't fix it
Discover my world at jkirkerx.com
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I've been using VistaDB for many years and recommend it highly.
Glen Harvy
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I originally learned apple development back in 2016 bec I wanted to write my C'YaPass app as a native iOS app.
At that time you had to learn UIKit to design the User Interface. It was always so clunky with very odd interactions with the IDE (Xcode) that I just never enjoyed it.
For example to tie a click to a button you had to do this odd Command-Key / mouse thing to add an @IBAction (Interface Builder action). Ugh!
Visual C++ / Visual Studio
I always wondered why other IDEs and development systems never got to the amazing drag-n-drop type of UI design with pre-defined controls like Visual Studio??
Apple Finally Did It: They Beat Visual Studio
Well, I hadn't been kicking around on AppleDev for a while but back in 2019 they released a new way to design the UI -- and it is freakin' amazin'!! Seriously.
SwiftUI: It's The New Way
The new thing is called SwiftUI and you can build interfaces super fast and they've created a fantastically simple (AND READABLE) way to do databinding.
DataBinding Is So Elegant
It is quite elegant. Look at this simple example. You can probably understand all the code you need for this simple example which includes databinding. It's really quite amazing.
You can see the final UI here (image snapshot)[^].
struct ContentView: View {
@State private var wifiEnabled = true
@State private var userName = ""
var body: some View {
VStack {
Toggle(isOn: $wifiEnabled) {
Text("Enable Wi-Fi")
}
TextField("Enter user name", text: $userName)
Text(userName)
Image(systemName: wifiEnabled ? "wifi" : "wifi.slash")
}
}
}
IDE Does Layout For You
All of the layout work is done by the IDE for you. It's amazing. You can build really nice UIs now and it is very easy.
I didn't previously like Apple Dev much at all, but Swift was a huge language improvement and now with SwiftUI UI building system it is exactly what you expected from Visual Studio all along. It's actually better than Visual Studio UI building. Amazing.
Learn SwiftUI & iOS App Dev
Here's a great book that I read to learn SwiftUI. The author, Neil Smyth, covers everything (including Swift language itself) really well. It's one of those great books you can read and actually learn to use the system.
Amazon.com: SwiftUI Essentials - iOS 16 Edition: Learn to Develop iOS Apps Using SwiftUI, Swift, and Xcode 14 eBook : Smyth, Neil: Kindle Store[^]
It all just amazes me because it takes me back to the days of learning to program Windows (3.1/95) and the fun of learning. Android Development brings that feeling a bit too, but this is even better.
Check it out. It's a lot of fun and you can build some really cool apps.
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raddevus wrote: IDE Does Layout For You
All of the layout work is done by the IDE for you
This sort of thing always raises a red flag for me.
Based on my experience - not with any Apple dev tool specifically, but dev tools in general - the instant you need something that deviates from what it's trying to get you to do, it'll fight you. Hard.
And from a company that doesn't shy away from telling its users they're doing it wrong, I shudder at the thought.
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I understand being jaded about layout tools and auto-help stuff.
I understand what you mean, but in the case of a huge number of device sizes (ipads, iphones, and macs (because SwiftUI supports macOS desktop apps) it actually makes sense.
You will have to see it in action, but it is freaking amazing how it makes sure things are layed out nicely.
Also, even though it does that for you, you can tweak everything and quite easily too.
For example, check out this snapshot of code and layout from the fantastic Apple Tutorials...[^]
https://i.stack.imgur.com/Xr4hH.png[^]
Also, the Apple Tutorials for SwiftUI are amazing too, so check them out.
I'm telling you Apple has really done some amazing work on this dev ecosystem (Xcode, Swift, SwiftUI).
Really neat and makes development fun.
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Definition: "user-friendly" = you have to fight it 3X harder
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raddevus wrote: Apple Finally Did It: They Beat Visual Studio
When Apple supports multiplatform, which will be never, then I am willing to review my thoughts on this statement.
Graeme
"I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks one time, but I fear the man that has practiced one kick ten thousand times!" - Bruce Lee
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Oh how I wish I had 20 upvotes to give this.
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I'm also a huge fan of SwiftUI. I like the fact that my UI code is no longer dependent on drags and drops, and is entirely encompassed in source code that's easily kept under source control. Now, if that debugger was as easy to use as Visual Studio's, I'd really be happy.
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And yet, MS goes backwards on UI builders. The current WinForms builder isn't quite as good in may ways as what they had 20+ years ago. And after a number of years, no UI builder for the XAML-based Xamarin.Forms (now MAUI) nor HTML-based Blazor. The concept of rapid application development (RAD) at MS seems to have been lost between generations. When I asked about that with MS insiders, they were adamant that hand coding was the only way to go. It seems the script kiddies who never used a RAD UI builder just don't get the concept of spending less time on grunt work with UI code and more time making the app better.
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If they didn't keep changing the underlying technology, maybe they'd be able to come up with a designer that made sense, and would provide the foundation to keep evolving it without having to constantly rewrite everything.
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And maybe if they hired developers and dev leads with better deductive reasoning, they could adapt functionality to changing technology. I may get roundly criticized for saying this, but MS (as many other American companies) moving to more offshore development and H1-B developers, over the years, has not been a net positive value for the company.
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MSBassSinger wrote: oving to more offshore development and H1-B developers, over the years, has not been a net positive value for the company.
Versus when exactly?
I certainly remember MS producing many technologies long ago that they abandoned it what seemed like a very short time. Not to mention that the ones they have stuck with have surprising problems when one gets away from the simplistic marketing presentations that were used to promote them.
And who are you comparing them to for a different company that designs something well the first time and then sticks with it for a very long time?
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MSBassSinger wrote: And yet, MS goes backwards on UI builders.
Agree 100%!!
MSBassSinger wrote: The current WinForms builder isn't quite as good in may ways as what they had 20+ years ago
It's really true. Visual Studio C++ was amazing (and especially amazing for when it was released).
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Visual C++ got its IDE from what the VB folks created (Alan Cooper, et al).
Those IDEs were extremely productive, and at least back in 2000, MS ported the IDE design to Visual Studio .NET.
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MSBassSinger wrote: The current WinForms builder isn't quite as good in may ways as what they had 20+ years ago.
No major changes since then, however, hotreload is supported while live debugging a running app. So I can't see how this statement makes any sense.
MSBassSinger wrote: no UI builder for the XAML-based Xamarin.Forms (now MAUI)
What rock are you living under? Only those who do not understand Xaml will make statements like these. VS has a live view of the layout and live editing/hot reload during debugging a running app.
MSBassSinger wrote: HTML-based Blazor
Again, hot reload during debugging a running app. However, comparing Swift/MAUI to blazor/html is like comparing Apples to eggs. Blazor, thanks to the BlazorWebView control, I can create hybrid apps with Wpf, WinForms, MAUI, UNO, Avalon, etc, for ANY device and seamlessly cross communicate between Blazor and the host app framework. Can SwiftUI do this? I know it can't, It is a closed/walled-off framework.
Side note: There are many 3rd-party html editors out there and I hate using any of them. I will stick with VS Code for raw editing static html - I can edit with hot reload while my page is live.
MSBassSinger wrote: RAD UI builder
This is only a very small part of the development tools required today. If you want to be walled-off into a small ecosystem and restrict and limit yourself, go for it. MS has opened up the whole device market from micro-controllers, to TVs, fridgets, to phones, tablets, to desktop and web, and to more and across operating systems, iOS, MacOS, TvOS, Linux, Android, Windows, etc. To top it off, they [Microsoft] have done it open-source!
Graeme
"I fear not the man who has practiced ten thousand kicks one time, but I fear the man that has practiced one kick ten thousand times!" - Bruce Lee
modified 6-Jul-23 19:34pm.
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