Date: Sat, 19 Jun 2010 12:11:17 +0200 From: Polytropon <freebsd@edvax.de> To: Bill Tillman <btillman99@yahoo.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: PDF storage software recommendations? Message-ID: <20100619121117.bc9480f8.freebsd@edvax.de> In-Reply-To: <473909.48600.qm@web36505.mail.mud.yahoo.com> References: <473909.48600.qm@web36505.mail.mud.yahoo.com>
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On Fri, 18 Jun 2010 19:24:52 -0700 (PDT), Bill Tillman <btillman99@yahoo.co= m> wrote: >=20 > Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2010 23:31:15 -0700 > From: Charlie Kester <corky1951@comcast.net> > Subject: Re: PDF storage software recommendations? > To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org > Message-ID: <20100618063115.GA57196@comcast.net> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=3Dus-ascii; format=3Dflowed >=20 > On Thu 17 Jun 2010 at 19:57:03 PDT Polytropon wrote: > > > >Maybe my answer will sound "low level", but it works - REALLY works - > >and works with mostly every kind of data. > > > >It's good to see someone recommending a true Unix-style solution.=A0 :) >=20 > Here, here.=A0 I too love simple text files. With the speed of today's > computers it's not impractical to use text files. That's basically what you have computer for - to make work faster, not slower. :-) > And something like you suggest with awk I think would work....except > for one major thing. When building a database like this you usually > have to build an interface that normal users will work with. That's why I suggested building a shell + Tcl/Tk script around it for the various "database operations" you can perform with it. The idea is that it is customizable ad infinitum, because everything is programmable into deepest details. > And something that I could use versus something the other people > in the office could use are often worlds apart. I once wrote a > program to do linear optimization for cutting metal parts from > stock lengths. For me it was a simple block of code about 30-40 > lines as I recall. The other guys in the warehouse saw it and > told the boss they wanted it too. He then instructed me to expand > it so the common users could work with it. Well 2 months later > and about another 400 lines of code to make it user friendly we > finally had something. So as I see it the interface for other > "not so tech-savvy" users will be the trouble with this approach. This sounds familiar. :-) I've also walked this way for "average users", at this time, by choice was to create a GUI control program using C with Gtk. Today, I would consider that totally overhead. My "average users" were psychiatrists, so any assumption about intelligency would not match the reality. :-) You wonder how people got their work done on 80x25 in a "wrong" language 30 years ago... > But put me > down for a vote on this method using simple text files and awk. It JUST WORKS - that's the goal. It can be developed and configured very fast, can easily be extended (or limited), and data is stored in a STANDARD (!!!) format which allows you to do ANYTHING with it. You can even provide a web-driven interface for the database, even that is possible. > We have a Windows based system at my current job which uses > FileMaker Pro. It's amazing what we can do with this and it's > like having a gigantic electronic filing cabinet. Oh, the paperless office... an utopia - at least in Germany, bureaucracy's home country. :-) Anyway, relying on a "Windows" program is, in my opinion, not the best choice for a long-term project such as document filing. With the constant transitions in the underly=EDng OS, and the immense costs, as well as the lock-in driven by closed (non-standard) formats, and finally through the limitation of what the original program developers did provide, makes me wonder if this can really be useful for longer times (let's say, +20 years - where the "low level" solution does still work). > It's pricey and it took the IT guys some time to build it but > it does do some fantastic things in keeping tons of files organized, > indexed and searchable. But I'd like to try my hand at building > something with text files and awk. Just imagine about 20 years in the future, and you'll see what's the better solution. :-) --=20 Polytropon Magdeburg, Germany Happy FreeBSD user since 4.0 Andra moi ennepe, Mousa, ...
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